Second Hostile Contact
by Leona-do
Summary: December 21, 2012, awoke the aliens that slept within the planets of the Sol System. The aliens, called Types, launched an all out attack on Earth. Their target, humanity, at the plea for help by Gaia, the collective spirit of Earth. No country or group of humans were spared. Humanity managed to survive but feared a second First Contact would destroy them. This is their story.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

December 21st, 2012 was the dreaded day for many. It was foretold by many as the Apocalypse or the end of human civilisation. That was also a day in which the planets of the Solar System aligned with the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. There were many conflicting accounts and interpretation of December 21st, 2012 Apocalypse.

Against anyone's expectation there was apocalypse. The planets within the Solar System aligning with the galactic center's black hole to create a combined gravitational effect. This combined gravitational effect did nothing but awake the slumbering inhabitants of the Solar System. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Humanity suddenly found itself under attack. It was not natural nor artificial. It was not from the Earth but from the stars. For a century, humanity and all life on Earth struggled for survival against extraterrestrial threat. Humanity would prevail but with terrible costs.

First Contact with aliens nearly caused the extinction of humanity. Therefore it prepared for any threat. Humanity was about to make another First Contact. These new aliens were ...

* * *

(4/12/2014 for America or 12/4/2014 the rest of the world)

Dear Readers,

As I promised you, the rewrite are underway. I only need to finish one more chapter and the rest need to get betaed (checked by other person). The grammar and flow should be better. The overall plot has remained the same but everything else has undergone small or significant changes. World Building or knowing the Alternate Universe I am constructing should be more clearer.

Thank you for reading,

Leona-do.

* P.S please review so I can improve this fanfic.


	2. Investigation

**Chapter One "Investigation"**

**0915 Hours, February 12, 2157 / In Orbit of Reach**

The atmosphere of the bridge of the _UNSV Iroquois_ was as tense. Tense enough that if someone was to sneeze, everyone would have jumped.

"Do we know anything?" Commander Keyes growled.

"We don't know much," the voice came from Communications. "Harvest reported getting strange energy readings. These energy readings have never been encountered before."

Keyes scowled at his Chief Communication officer.

The Chief Communications officer fanatically began plugging into his console to search for more information.

"Battle stations. Spin up the Slipspace Drive!" Commander Jacob Keyes barked, his voice was so loud that everyone could hear him.

The tense atmosphere of the Bridge disappeared. Everyone had a task to do and raced to get their assignment done. The same attitude was shared by everyone on the _Iroquois_.

Everyone felt better and no longer stressed. For several minutes, they had done nothing but worry about the unknown. Now they did not have to think; as they were too busy to allow think about the fear of the unknown.

Resting crewmen and women dropped everything as the crew flung themselves out of beds and pods. Cryofrozen crewmembers were thawed awake and people began to put on the clothing and gear of their chosen profession. Everyone rushed to their designated areas and began their assigned duties.

In less than ten minutes, the _Iroquois_ was ready.

"Never again will humans die because a lack of vigilance," vowed Keyes as he remembered the devastating era that nearly wiped out humanity.

The _UNSV Iroquois_, a UNSV destroyer-class warship, was prepared for anything that the galaxy could throw at her. Her crew was ready physically and spiritually to weather whatever horrors were to come. As long as someone drew breath they would act to the best of their abilities.

Humanity had known peace for decades. For decades, the UN Armed Forces had investigated anything that could suggest alien presence. Every day alone, there were thousands of strange occurrences investigated. Every investigation yielded nothing but false alarms (and even more investigations) but never was an alien presence detected. Nevertheless, every investigation was treated with serious attention. Every investigation was one possible forewarning that could prevent the loss of human lives and eliminating a threat before it could grow.

If this investigation into the strange energy readings turned out to be anything then it was the duty of Commander Keyes and his crew to reconfirm their findings and report them as quickly as possible. If the investigation found any traces of alien activity then UN High Command needed to be notified and prepare to address the issue.

The _UNSV Iroquois _and her crew were prepared to handle any investigation and combat. If they were to find nothing then there was nothing they could do but reinvestigate the energy readings. If aliens were detected then First Contact protocols were to be enacted and data collected. The _Iroquois_ was prepared for battle if the worst was to arise.

Commander Keyes sat down on his seat and tapped the holographic computer at his station. He mustered his courage and hailed every communication channel on the _Iroquois_.

"I will not lie to you. We are about to investigate strange readings. We do not know what we will encounter. We may encounter aliens or we may not. We may find an entire race prepared for the extinction of humanity or simple dust. Whatever the case we must be prepared." He paused to let the message sink in. "All that matters is that we shall protect Earth and all Her Colonies, no matter the cost. For Earth and Her Colonies!"

"For Earth and all Her Colonies!" Six hundred voices within the _Iroquois_ roared the motto of the UN Armed Forces.

At the conclusion of Commander Keyes' speech the crew began to prepare for combat. Soldiers armed and armoured themselves. Pilots prepared their ships for flight. Technicians and engineers did final checks and prepared for damage control.

Keyes walked towards the holographic table at the center of the Bridge and brought up the Epsilon Indi Star System map. He studied the tactical map, trying to divine the future and create a plan of action. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Only the usual movement of planetary bodies and asteroids appeared. Civilian starship traffic in and out of the star system also appeared.

He then looked for the listening outpost that had reported the strange energy readings.

All it took was flick of a finger to open a comm channel with the Harvest's listening post, which had reported the strange energy readings that the _Iroquois_ was being sent to investigate.

"What has the listening post picked up?"

"About an hour ago, we, the _UNSV Harvest_'_s Sense_, detected an abnormal reading. It had first appeared on the luminal sensors and we thought it was object travelling partially at the speed of light; we thought 'this is potential danger to human lives'. It was after deeper scans that we encountered the strange energy readings," reported whoever received Commander Keyes' orders. "Only the energy readings are out of the ordinary and this object will enter the Epsilon Indi Star System within two hours."

"Nothing like Od? Mana? Prana?" Keyes asked in an unconvinced tone.

"Absolutely nothing except for the strange energy readings."

"Give me the co-ordinates of these energy readings and the _Iroquois _will investigate. Open communication channels to UN High Command and report anything to High Command that moment that you lose communications with the _Iroquois_."

"Copy, Commander. Forwarding coordinates where those energy readings are supposed to appear within system. _UNSV Harvest's Senses_ out."

Keyes nodded acknowledgment and made his farewells.

With a heavy sigh, Commander Keyes felt the uneasiness of facing the unknown. No matter how many times he had investigated strange occurrences all over human territory, it never got easier. The notion that anything could happen and change everything within seconds somewhat frightened him and made him concerned for his crew.

Keyes sighed. He could only hope his training and experience would help him lead his crew through whatever was to come.

"Slipspace Drive is hot. Ready to enter Slipspace at your command," announced the Chief Navigation officer.

The Commander turned towards his Chief Navigation officer and nodded.

The _Iroquois_'s Slipspace Drive began to activate and a hole in space-time formed in front of the _UNSV Iroquois_. Plasma drives and thrusters activated and the _Iroquois_ forged ahead, moving serenely into a newly formed hole in reality. The distinctive darkness of Slipspace swallowed the whole five hundred and fifty long length of the UNSV warship.

Two hours after departing from Reach and twenty-five lightyears away, the _Iroquois _exited Slipspace.

"Sitrep," called out Keyes.

The tactical map activated, showing the current position of the _Iroquois_. Vague shapes, not that of the _Iroquois_, surrounded the unmistakably shape of the _Iroquois_. The vague shapes were clearly artificial, as no asteroid would have such clean and angular shape. They could only be space vessels of unknown design. Six alien vessels to be exact.

"Detecting energy readings, which are climbing extremely fast. Most likely weapon systems!" reported the sensor operator.

The commanding officer did not have to give the order. Everyone jumped the gun and hurried at their tasks. Orders and messages were sent by the Officer of the Bridge and within moments everyone that served on the _Iroquois_ knew within seconds what was going on.

The engines of fighters came to life. The safety switches to guns were switched off. Repair gear was activated. Everyone was ready to do their part. The only thing left was to wage war.

"Do not act unless fired upon!" Commander Keyes roared so that everyone could hear.

The crew, that had been seconds away from preparing for battle looked at their commanding officer with baffled looks, confused by his orders

"A starship just appeared out of nowhere, right in middle of a military formation. How would you feel if you were in the alien's shoes?"

The baffled crew now understood their commanding officer's unwarlike orders. He did not want to start a war with aliens if he could help it as the last one for humanity had nearly driven humanity to extinction.

"First Contact Package, sir?" One of the communication officers asked.

"Send it," answered Keyes and adding a confirming nod.

The _UNSV Iroquois_ would wait for the response of the aliens. No matter how it responded, she and her crew would go down in history.

* * *

(4/12/2014 for America or 12/4/2014 the rest of the world)

Dear Readers,

As I promised you, the rewrite are underway. I only need to finish one more chapter and the rest need to get betaed (checked by other person). The grammar and flow should be better. The overall plot has remained the same but everything else has undergone small or significant changes. World Building or knowing the Alternate Universe I am constructing should be more clearer.

Thank you for reading,

Leona-do.

* P.S please review so I can improve this fanfic.


	3. Hostile Contact

**Chapter Two "Hostile Contact"**

**1115 Hours, February 12, 2157 / Epsilon Indi Star System**

The Combat Information Center (or CIC) of the THSV _Implacable_, flagship of the Turian patrol group, was flooded with activity. So much data was being sent back and forth that the computer server was lagging from overuse. It was not just the flagship's computer servers that were lagging; but the other Turian warships too.

"Are we still in FTL?" Captain Thrankus asked as he stepped onto the Combat Information Center or CIC.

"No, sir. We left FTL minutes ago," replied a Turian sensor operator. "Good. Form up the patrol group. We are going to locate the alien bastards who decided to break Citadel law; and explain to them why the law exists. These are not just any lawbreakers; but those who fired upon the law enforcers and killed our fellow brothers and sisters. No one gets away with murder!" The Captain shouted loudly so that everyone on the CIC could hear him.

At the Captain's orders, the Turian frigates began to pull into the standard formation.

The patrol group did not even get time to move as a group before alarms blared like fireworks.

"Report! What is going on?" Thrankus barked.

"No idea sir. Massive radiation readings just appeared out of nowhere. These energy readings we are detecting are those associated with black holes."

"That's impossible! Black holes don't just appear out of nowhere. They are formed when a star collapses under its own gravity," refuted the Chief Navigator.

"I don't care if we just made a scientific discovery. We are not going to lose a warship because the crew was simply amazed by the sudden appearance of a black hole or debating how black holes are formed. Use emergency FTL jumps, if it means getting away from the black hole safely!" Captain Thrankus roared. The roar snapped the crew back to reality. They no longer were amazed or confused by the sudden appearance of a black hole but realised that if they did not act then they could die from being sucked in a black hole. The crew rushed back to their tasks.

"Something is coming out of the black hole!" A sensor operator shouted.

Thrankus was shocked by the news. He had been expecting to see a black hole grow in size and his patrol group would avoid the black hole. Never in his wildest dream did he expect something to actually appear out of the black hole. That defined conventional logic as nothing, not even light, could escape a black hole.

"Are you seeing this!"

"That's impossible! Black holes suck everything into it. Not even light escapes a black hole. Objects don't come out of black holes!"

Similar remarks and comments erupted throughout the CIC. Turian officers gawked at the impossibility they were seeing on the sensors. Whilst no Turian onboard was a scientist by trade, they did have enough basic understanding of science to understand that what they were seeing was impossible; or something from a science fictions novel.

Black holes were a force of nature that anything escaped. No even light and objects travelling faster than the speed of light could escape a black hole.

Thrankus quickly recovered. As a Turian officer, who had served in the Turian military for decades, he had seen a lot of strange and thought impossible phenomena. This one was certainly topped that list of things that he had thought impossible. However he was a captain of a warship and the commanding officer of a patrol group. Not reacting to new changes could spell defeat and death in the battlefield; and he had the experience to know he had to act now.

"Position the patrol group around that starship!" Thrankus roared so loudly that everyone on the CIC snapped out of their thoughts. "And don't fire unless on my orders."

The crew snapped into action and set off at their jobs. Orders were relayed. Commands into consoles were plugged and warships began to move.

A shared question arose amongst the crew after the Turian patrol group surrounded the newly appeared starship.

"Captain, why are we not firing on this starship. It is clearly a warship sharing the same design as the starship that illegal activated Relay 314!" "Of course, go ahead and fire!" Thrankus spoke sarcastically. "Do you honestly want to wage war with a race that could use black holes as weapons!"

The Turian crew instantly understood their commanding officer's point.

No one would want to face an enemy that could control black holes. Black holes were amongst the most powerful and dangerous phenomena within the galaxy. As technology and science had progressed many things of that had been once been dangerous were no longer a threat. Black holes were one of the many objects that had never become safer as technology and science advanced. Black holes were a force of nature that few if none could survive.

A black hole the size of a pin could suck in and crush entire planets into oblivion. Nothing except a star going supernova could compare to the destructive force of a black hole. The dreaded asteroid bombing and use of nuclear weapons were pale comparisons to black holes and supernovas.

"Sir, we are receiving some sort information packet in all frequencies," called out one of the communication operators.

"It's most likely a First Contact package," answered the Captain. "Send a First Contact package of our own but make no mentions of Mass Relays. These aliens cannot know we destroyed one of their starships. We had jammed the communications of the destroyed alien starship to prevent it from calling help. The lasting thing the Turian Hierarchy would want is an enemy that can control black holes."

Thrankus's eyes bulged out when he saw the tactical display. His mind could only helplessly replay what had occurred. He saw the tactical display showing one of his frigates charge up their MAC and propel a twenty kilogram projectile at 4025km/s towards the ...

"_Palvern's Pride_ just opened fire!"

"Don't fire unless I give the word!" Thrankus barked in his loudest voice. "Spirits. Don't tell me one zealous idiot started a war."

- O -

An object came smashing in front of the windows of the Bridge..

A sliver light flared as the object was intercepted. Not even two seconds later, another object was blocked by again by a flaring silver light.

Keyes felt his rage wanting to explode. It had been only thanks to his training and decades of experience as a military commander that he did not return fire reflexively. His crew felt the emotions and just like their commanding officer, it was their training and military experience that overwrote their natural instincts to retaliate. His and his crews actions could spark a war, hence the lack of retaliatory strike.

The Commander snapped out thoughts and got back into the situation at hand.

"What did they fire upon us!" Commander Keyes bellowed out.

"The aliens just fired a ferric-tungsten round at us!" A sensor operator announced.

"The round used by the aliens are twenty kilograms, traveling at the speed of 1.3% the speed of light," called out another sensor operator.

"The _Iroquois_' and UN destroyer class warships fire a hundred kilogram ferric-tungsten round, which travels at 10% the speed of light, from a MAC. If we compare the alien's version of a MAC to our own it would be comparing a rifle to a cannon, respectively!" The Chief Gunnery officer shouted out.

"How long before our energy shields fail?" The Commander barked out.

"Two minutes using the current rate of fire the single alien corvette's MAC, the amount of kinetic energy from the alien's MAC round and how fast the _Iroquois_' energy shields regenerate at," responded one of the energy shield operators.

"I wouldn't rely on that estimate. There are four more alien corvettes and a single alien destroyer. If they open fire, our shields are toast!" The Chief Energy Shield officer barked out.

"Why would the alien's fire upon us?" Keyes thought.

He raked his mind for any possible explanation why the aliens could open fire upon _Iroquois _when it had peacefully broadcasted a First Contact package. The Commander could only think up of one reason and that was a thrive for battle. That was the only explanation that came into mind to explain why the aliens had opened fire upon them.

"Return fire! These alien bastards must be war-like and love battle to open fire upon a starship peacefully broadcasting a First Contact Protocol!"Commander Keyes announced with underlying anger. "Let the aliens know humanity's fury!"

- O -

Hangar doors and blast shields opened up as Lightning light fighters and Thunderbolt bombers flew out of their hangers. The fighters formed up into their squadrons and wings, racing wave after wave towards their designated targets.

To avoid alien point-defence fire, the fighters danced erratically through space to meet their foes. Projectiles flew through the barrels of magnetic weapons as the first wave of fighters closed at the alien warships. Fierce and deadly, the projectiles cleaved towards their target, only to splatter harmlessly mere meter from the enemy hull.

The alien warships began to spread out to increase their fields of fire and prevent themselves from damaging their fellow warships if they were to blow up. Then they began to open fire upon the human fighters.

GARDIAN lasers opened fire and crimson-red lasers came out.

The human fighters' energy shields flared to life as the crimson lasers were blocked by energized particles. It took ten or so hits from a GARDIAN laser to take out the energy shields on the Lightning light fighters and thirty or so hits on the Thunderbolt bombers' energy shields.

Even when the energy shields failed, the fighters were much more studier than their energy shields. A single GARDIAN laser hit only scorched the metal hulls of the human fighters. To rent holes into the human fighters it took more hits to the hull than disperse the human fighters' energy shields.

Most had scorch marks left on their hulls were others had extremely small holes. The fiberglass windows of the human fighters were not penetrated by the anti-missile/anti-fighter lasers and had left blur on the windows.

In unison reply, the fighters released unrestrained and continuous fire. Dozens of fighters' cannons left no lasting damage to the invisible field that protected the alien warship hull.

The aliens were going to allow the human fighters to simply swarm them with cannon fire. They released fighters of their own. Alien fighters flooded out in greater number than their human counterparts and began to engage the human fighters in dog fights.

- O -

Lieutenant Carol Rawley, callsign 'Foehammer', was nervous. She and her fellow pilots were engaging an alien foe, an enemy with unknown capabilities, which made it impossible to predict what to expect. What she knew was that her enemy had some kind of energy shield, different from the ones that humanity used, and lasers as point-defence.

Foehammer licked her lips thinking what kind of adrenaline rush she would get from trying to dodge a laser beam.

Lasers weapons were the most difficult foe that any pilot had. It was impossible from dodging the laser beam itself as it travelled at the speed of light. The only time a pilot could dodge a laser beam was right before it charged up and fired, tracking either the laser operator or targeting computer with either feints or getting out the lasers target area in time. What annoyed Foehammer and her fellow pilots were that the alien fighters too had energy shields, making the alien fighters more durable. It was only luck that the alien fighters' energy shields were not as powerful as those found on the alien warships, allowing the human fighters to chip away at the alien fighters' energy shield before destroying them.

The alien warships were practically untouchable with their energy shields. Gauss cannons, those used by the Lightning fighters and Thunderbolt bombers, did nothing but pepper the alien warships' energy shields with magnetically accelerated rounds with no damage.

Foehammer just wished that her fellow pilots and herself could bring out the more potent missiles on the Lightning light and Thunderbolt bombers. Those missiles might be able to do some damage where the gauss cannons failed on the alien warships.

"_Iroquois _request authorization to use nuclear weapons," asked Foehammer.

"This is _Iroquois _actual. Echo-419, you have permission to engage the enemy with nuclear weapons over. Give those alien bastards hell."

"Roger _Iroquois_." Foehammer spoke into her radio. "You heard it. Anvil nuclear missiles have been authorized."

"Roger, Echo-419." Several different voices replied over the radio.

The nuclear missiles flew from the wings of human fighters and bombers towards the alien warships. The nuclear missiles used by the Lightning light fighters were designed to take out tanks while the ones used by the Thunderbolt heavy fighter were designed to take out a entire city block.

A single or barrage of nuclear missiles did nothing but explode on the energy shield, while the alien warships' hulls were left untouched. It was only under waves and waves of nuclear missiles and several minutes worth constant firing that the nuclear missiles finally smashed through the energy shields of the alien warships.

"I got a hit," announced one of the human pilots. "Shit take a look at that. These alien warships sure have some powerful energy shields but have tin foils for a hull."

"Keep it up, boys and girls. We know that these alien warships can be bleed from our weapons. If they can bleed then they can die! Foehammer out."

- O -

Recessed weapon systems came out of the _Iroquois_'s hull. Magnetic weapons began to charge and hatches to missile pods opened up.

The_ Iroquois _moved in to engage the alien warships. It would not sit around while its smaller cousin, the human fighters would bleed and die to try and destroy the alien warships. She would do her job. She was a destroyer class warship for a reason. While not possessing the firepower and armour of the heavier cruisers and battleships, the _Iroquois_ and her class were the ground pounders of the UN Navy. Armed and armoured to the teeth, it had the hard hitting firepower and endurance of the light class warship of the UN Navy, where the UN frigates lacked.

Gauss cannons and missile pods opened fire upon the closest alien warship.

If the gauss cannons on the human fighters had fired were pebbles than the ones on the _Iroquois_ were boulders that smashed into the alien warship. The invisible shield was chipped away by the _Iroquois_'s gauss cannons within seconds in which had taken waves and waves of nuclear missiles and gauss cannon fire constantly for several minutes from human fighters.

When the invisible shield dispersed, Archer nuclear missiles, which were designed for orbital bombardment and anti-ship targets, smashed into the hull of the alien corvette class warship. Massive holes were blown apart. Anything not bolted down in the alien warship went flying out into space. Archer missiles kept ripping apart the alien warship piece by piece until it hit something vital. A large explosion soon set off a chain reaction and the entire alien warship was engulfed in explosions into it was blown into many pieces.

During that time while the _Iroquois_ destroyed one alien corvette, the _Iroquois_'s primary weapon system charged up. This weapon was the Magnetic **A**ccelerator **C**annon, or MAC for short, and it was the most non-nuclear weapon created by human hands. It ran through the superstructure of the _Iroquois_ and fired a hundred kilogram ferric-tungsten slug at ten percent the speed of light.

Anything caught in the way was simply obliterated into dust.

The MAC round punched through invisible shield like it was not there and smashed into the leading alien warship with the destructive force of ten megatons, which was four hundred and six times the nuclear power dropped on Japan during World War II.

- O -

Foehammer pulled her joystick forward and her Thunderbolt heavy fighter shot forwards at MACH 10. She flipped the controls to the Anvil II nuclear missiles and 120mm gauss cannons to warm them up. It took less than five seconds for her weapon systems were hot. When she was within range, she was about to press down on the joystick.

BOOM!

There was a blinding light. The fiberglass window and visor, that Foehammer wore, took longer to polarize and filter out the light that the bright light had already disappeared..

"Holy shit! Did you see that!" A voice screamed on the radio.

"This is _Iroquois _actual. MAC rounds have been authorized. I repeat MAC rounds have been authorized. Targeting solutions are locked. I would avoid getting in of the way of the MAC if I were you, boys and girls." A communication's officer of the _Iroquois _spoke over the radio.

"That is one hell of a way to start a party," murmured Foehammer.

Left in the wake of the MAC round was a massive explosion that ripped through not just one but three different alien corvettes. The first alien corvette shattered immediately into millions of pieces. The second was ripped apart by spectacular explosions as its nuclear reactor went critical and overloaded. The third alien corvette was gutted in the CIC, the human equivalent of the Bridge, and control was lost as the command crew had been killed.

- O -

"Where did that massive energy reading go?!" Captain Thrankus demanded.

"Can't say sa-" the sensor officer cut himself off mid-word. "The _Iron Wing__, Iron Heart_ and _Palvern's Pride _are gone."

"What do you mean gone?!" The Captain asked in shock and disbelief.

"I mean gone. They are no longer where they were."

The holographic table at the back of the CIC, that showed the position of the _Implacable,_ the Turian patrol group and surrounding area, changed. Where the _Iron Wing _and _Palvern's Pride _had been there were wreckages. Slowly the tactical display changed to show the destruction of the three frigates. The _Iron Wing _was obliterated into millions of pieces instantly and a massive slug continued towards the _Palvern_'s _Pride_. The _Palvern's Pride_ had the massive slug smash through it and after it was torn apart by series of explosions. _Iron Heart _was intact but in inoperable as the CIC was destroyed and she would only be functioning once more when another CIC was built.

The Turians were shocked by the sudden destruction of the two Turian frigates and could only watch in horror at the replay, when a third frigate was gutted. The _Iron Heart_was hit in the CIC, where the command and control of the warship, and without the CIC to control the _Iron Heart_she helplessly drifted into space without any more activity.

No matter what the shocked and horrified Turian felt, time did not stop for them.

Wave after wave of missiles streaked from the human fighters towards the surviving Turian frigates, only to shatter against invisible protective fields. The invisible protective field, known as Kinetic Barriers, stopped every single missile that was not shot down by the anti-fighter/missile lasers. Shrapnel and fast moving plasma from the human nuclear missiles were brushed aside by kinetic barriers.

The sheer heat from the blocked plasma was enough to cause metal to sag and melt away.

"Spirits! Even the alien fighters have nuclear weapons!" A weapon operator shouted, hysterically. "What does it take to kill these alien fighters. They either dodge or survival hit from not just one but several GARDIAN lasers. No Citadel space fighter can survive that much firepower!"

"_Retribution _and _Phalanx _are reporting kinetic barrier losing strength at staggering rates. Kinetic Barriers will fail within seconds! There is simply too much firepower being used by the aliens!" One of the communications officers squawked in an alarmed tone.

Thrankus' mandibles tightened in anger.

"Evasive action, don't let them hit us, and somebody get the spirits-cursed GARDIAN firing!"

"GARDIAN is working, sir!" The sensor tech's voice was high and shrill. "There are too many missiles for the GARDIAN lasers to handle! The alien fighters are also simply too durable and fast for the GARDIAN lasers to hit!"

For the first time in living memory and centuries, the turians were facing a superior enemy. They were facing a superior enemy in terms equipment. These aliens simply had more powerful weapons and durable armor than the Turian Hierarchy possessed.

Many of the turian navy personnel, even the experienced military officers, did not know what to do. It had been centuries since the turian military had ever faced an enemy that was superior than them. The turian military officers that were experienced in fighting a superior enemy were long dead before any living turian had been born. Even the military strategies and tactics employed by the turian military against more well trained and equipped enemy were historical facts.

The current turian military, equipment wise and mentally, were prepared to deal with well organised and dangerous pirates; not a proper military that was had more potent weapons than the turian one. Even on the rare occasionss where the pirates had outnumbered the Turian Navy; the Turian Navy came out on top because the pirates had no training. Nor did they have the experience and equipment to deal with the Turian warships. The normally enjoyed advantages of the Turian Navy were deprived in this situation.

"I am picking up another energy surge. It is climbing rapidly! It will match the previous massive energy reading at its current rate in five minutes!"

Horror began to grip Thrankus. He gulped heavily and began to scratch his mandibles. Then he sighed in relief as he figured it out.

"We have five minutes to destroy that alien cruiser. The last massive energy reading and now growing energy reading would most likely be their primary weapon system charging up to fire," announced the Captain. "Can you confirm that a projectile was fired?"

One of the sensor operators nodded and shouted out, "the projectile was 100kg ferric tungsten travelling at approximately 10% the speed of light."

"That is more powerful than any MAC Turian dreadnaughts uses!"

"Not even the _ARSV Destiny Ascension_ possesses a MAC as powerful as the alien cruiser's one!"

After the two outbursts, many Turian officers began to sprout nonsense relating to how powerful the alien MAC was and comparable MACs that any Citadel race employed.

Then coolers minds began to talk to their panicking colleagues.

"Think! How long is that alien's MAC to recharge. It takes five minutes! Five minutes in which our MACs can fire every 2 seconds! The aliens have a powerful cannon but we have a fast shooting assault rifle," spoke out a level headed turian.

"Of course," agreed one of former panicking turian crew, as he became convinced by the cooler heads,

Similar discussions arose from the CIC and the panicking turians became calm and ready for combat again. They were ready to act like professionals.

The calming down of the panicking turian crew was reversed when a turian, clearly having a nervous break down, screamed.

"That fucking doesn't matter! Look at the fact that three frigates just got completely destroyed by one shot!" One of the panicking turians screamed in distraught. "If that was not enough look at those fighters. Those alien fighters had been able to swarm over one of our frigates and destroy it. Who cares about having a slow recharging time of the alien MAC when they have fucking point defence guns that can eliminate kinetic barriers and rip away our hulls! The final nail is that the fucking alien fighters have anti-ship nuclear missiles!"

That completely reversed all the convincing that the calmer turian had done. In fact, several of the calmer ones began to panic at the realisation how much the odds were stacked against them.

Pandemonium ripped through CIC as everyone began to panic. Even the calmest turians could not believe how badly outmatched they were and how likely their deaths would be before they could even inflict damage on the alien cruiser.

"Enough! Act like properly trained military personnel. You are part of the Turian Hierarchy!" Captain Thrankus roared, reminding his crew of their duty and honour. "Now, pull yourselves together. No one alive here may have the experience or training of fighting against a better equipped enemy, but remember this! Our people faced the Krogans! We did not win! We neutered one of the greatest threats to the galaxy!"

It was like the turian crew were whipped by a slave master. The turian crew of the _Implacable_ redoubled their efforts and set forth to their jobs with renewed vigour. The mass of enemy fighters surrounding the _Implacable_, darting ever closer as they circled the cruiser, began to thin out as the GARDIAN anti-missile/anti-fighter weapon system reprioritized their targets by level of danger. The speed at which the _Implacable _moved doubled.

"We will not let you down, sir. The turian military has its unbreakable discipline and calm under fire." The turian crew spoke together in chorus.

The Captain could not help but calm down and smirk. Of course, he was a Turian officer. A lifer, who had served in the military for decades. He might not have faced this alien cruiser but he dealt with similar situations in the past in his military career. His crew were going to get recommendations of valour when they got out of this.

The Captain opened a private com channel to his Chief Navigator and whispered, "Can you make a FTL jump right now?"

"We could but we need to reroute power from somewhere. Rerouting power will mean less power to where the power would have gone previously. It would mean weakening the _Implacable_'s offensive and defensive capabilities," replied Chief Navigator.

Thrankus nodded and sent the override codes towards to the Chief Navigator. He could not openly order power to be rerouted; as that would undermine his ship's performance and thus the crew morale. With the override codes, the Chief Navigator could reroute power without affecting the crew's morale.

"A tactical withdrawal is in order." Thrankus announced to his crew. "The_ Retribution and_ _Phalanx_, will remain back to cover our retreat and stall time so that we can gain little more data on the aliens before we make haste to the closest Turian outpost."

He knew that he would regret this later but it had to be done. The aliens were too powerful. A lone alien cruiser was causing more damage than any Citadel warship. Tonnage for tonnage the aliens were superior to them. The Turian Hierarchy needed to know this information. When the Turian Hierarchy were to encounter the aliens, again, tactics had to be made to take into the count that alien warships were superior to their turian counterparts.

The deck lurched suddenly as alarms blared from the engineering stations.

"We just lost power to the engines. Something managed to knock out them out," reported the lead engineer.

"Was it some kind of electrical failure?"

"Not sure but most likely the aliens are most likely the cause. The chances of the engines failing on us now are possible but unlikely given how well they are maintained."

Thrankus head bowed. The moment passed and he regained his poise. His mandibles opened and closed as he thought of options. Escaping for the _Implacable _was out. A single turian frigate was needed to raise the Turian Hierarchy and report what had happened to prepare them with the data that his patrol group had gathered.

"Tell the _Retribution_ that they have the duty of alerting the Turian Hierarchy."

Then a second later, the CIC rocked. When the Captain looked at the holographic table he saw that the _Retribution_ no longer on the tactical map. Utterly destroyed by the alien cruiser's main weapon. In the place of the _Retribution_ was wreckage, blown apart and ripping itself into pieces.

"Spirits! Why did that cocky turian open fire upon this new alien species? From now, many lives could be lost because of the action of one idiot."

- O -

"Echo-419, this is Commander Keyes over."

"I read you, sir!" Foehammer shouted with military discipline that had been drilled into her.

"Marvelous work with knocking out the alien flagship's engines. You just secured us Intel for us to gather on the aliens."

"I am just doing my duty, sir."

"Continue the excellent work. Keyes out."

Foehammer narrowly dodged a laser, streaking past her cockpit. She wrenched her joystick down and her Thunderbolt sped into downwards spiral as she fought to keep off the alien fighter that was trailing her.

The aliens had deployed their own fighters not long ago but they were sitting ducks for the human pilots. Most of her fellow pilots like Foehammer had decades of experience and training just preparing themselves to defend humanity from aliens that threatened humanity. The skill level between the human pilots and alien pilots were just too wide. It didnot help that the Lighting and Thunderbolt fighters were superior to the alien fighters.

The Lightning light and Thunderbolt bombers were outnumbered by three to one. The _UNSV Iroquois _was just one destroyer. There was only so many fighters she could carry. The aliens had five corvettes and a destroyer to deploy their fighters. While the odds were stacked against UN pilots, they were more than a match for the alien fighters even if they were outnumbered. The _Iroquois_'s point defence weapons had also helped level the odds significantly.

"Come get me alien scum," taunted Foehammer as she engaged her thrusters.

Foehammer shot back with her engines thrusters firing in the opposite direction to her engine.

The tailing alien fighter was unprepared for Foehammer's sudden maneuver. It flew straight into the exhaust of Foehammer's Thunderbolt's engines and energy shield. The energy shield stopped the alien fighter dead in its track. In fact the alien fighter's own momentum caused the cockpit to smash against the energized particles that created the energy shield.

Fate seemed to be against the alien. To add salt to the injury the plasma that propelled the Thunderbolt flew straight into the cockpit of the alien fighter; melting the alien pilot. That was not before the alien fighter attempted last second manoeuvre to get out of Foehammer's way. The end result was the alien fighter, even with its pilot killed, avoiding collision with Foehammer.

"One for humanity, zero for the aliens."

Dozens of Lightning and Thunderbolt fighters surrounded the alien warships. The alien ships, however, stood strong, absorbing everything that human fighters threw at the alien warships. It took more than the combined firepower of dozens of fighters and several minutes of continuous fire of gauss cannon rounds and nuclear missiles to eliminate invisible shield that surrounded the alien warships.

When the invisible shields collapsed, there were immediate results to the magnetically accelerated rounds and nuclear missiles. The rounds punctured alien warship's hull like rainy day. A plume from a missile was foreboding sign that fury of humanity exploding like a tiny star. One tenth of a kiloton explosive power, a tenth of the nuclear bomb that exploded in Japan during WWII, ripped apart the alien warship hull.

All around, alien warships were suffering the same fate from the human fighters.

The lone flagship of the aliens received special treatment from the _Iroquois_.

The special treatment included the full and undivided attention of a human destroyer, that had single handley destroyed four alien corvettes like butter within a microwave. There was little that the alien destroyer could do against the _Iroquois _but fire its point defence lasers at her. The laser barrage finally knocked out the _Iroquois_' weakened energy shields. The _Iroquois_' energy shield flared white one last time before the laser began pelting at the _Iroquois_' hull but did little but leave carbon holes at the _Iroquois_' two meter thick battleplating.

Her reply was a full barrage of her own guns. Gauss cannon threw out thunder destroying all of the alien's point defence lasers.

In its final defiance, the alien destroyer launched a barrage of torpedoes. Many of the torpedoes were neutralized by the _Iroquois_' point defence system but many still hit her hull. The mass of the hit areas had massive fluctuations thanks to space-time disturbances as the titanium-A battleplating ripped itself apart.

Across every communication channel, one man said two words. "Board them."

* * *

(4/12/2014 for America or 12/4/2014 the rest of the world)

Dear Readers,

As I promised you, the rewrite are underway. I only need to finish one more chapter and the rest need to get betaed (checked by other person). The grammar and flow should be better. The overall plot has remained the same but everything else has undergone small or significant changes. World Building or knowing the Alternate Universe I am constructing should be more clearer.

Thank you for reading,

Leona-do.

P.S Shout out to Jouaint. He make me happy, I make him happy :) I release chapter for his review


	4. Intel Gathering

**Chapter Three ****"****Intel Gathering****"**

**1829 Hours, February 12, 2157 / In graveyard of Turian warships**

"What do you think Professor Halsey?" Commander Keyes asked his chief scientist as he entered her office.

Halsey was a women dressed in a white labcoat; which was thrown over her blue blouse and brown jeans. Halsey, who was currently sipping her coffee, was definitely not the typical professor. Her blonde hair shone like spun gold and her eyes were like sapphires. In her hand was a datapad that she was busy reading through.

"I had been expecting the aliens' biology to be completely foreign and complex; like the Types; where it would take decades to have even a basic understanding of their physiology. These new aliens are surprisingly similar in build to many animals on Earth; although they are a dextro-protein species. I could get any xenologist or zoologist to help me out as far as 'what goes where'," replied Halsey, not taking her eyes off her datapad.

Keyes glared at the professor. He was normally a understanding and compassionate man but now was not the time for that. The aliens may have been defeated hours ago but that did not mean that reinforcements or more aliens come to investigate. If either scenario were to happen the more information he and his crew had on the aliens then the better their performance against the aliens, thus less casualties.

"The science can come later. I want my questions answered," said Keyes in a grave tone. "Will the aliens stay dead when we kill them."

Halsey shook her head in disappointment at the Commander's reaction. Military officers, no matter gender or age, wanted information related to war and anything else was gabbage. The only science the military cared for was the science relating to killing the enemy and healing their own soldiers.

"It would be easier to show you then explain."

Halsey beckoned towards Keyes to follow and walked off out of her office. She went towards one of the scientific labs that had been set up within the _Iroquois_.

He gave her calculating look before sighing in defeat. The Commander followed suit.

Keyes turned around took a good look at the entire lab. What he found was disappointment. Somehow, the Professor had decided to transform one of the _Iroquois_'s many observation rooms into a makeshift science laboratory. He did not know how Halsey did not become distracted by the sight of the stars, planets and space through the transparent windows that served as this room's floor and wall.

Pushing such idle thoughts, he turned his attention towards several object that had caught his eyes. When he got a proper look his eyes widened significantly.

"Are these the aliens that we recovered from the alien wreckages?" Keyes asked..

"Yes, these specimens you see here are the aliens we managed to recover," replied the Professor pointing the specimen with a uncaring manner.

When the Commander got a gook look, he could not help but compare the alien specimens to that of many bird species that lived on Earth and found on many human planets. What made the alien specimen completely different from a bird was that it was very humanoid and similar in size to a human. In the place of toes and fingers were talons. Where a human would have skin it had scaly like carapace.

"Are any of them alive?" The Commander questioned in an amazed tone as the human held notion of aliens were those of legends, as until today humanity had not encountered extraterrestrials in nearly one and half centuries.

Halsey turned to see which direction Keyes was pointed towards and saw he was looking at one alien specimen in particular. She gave the Commander a bored and sarcastic look.

"Yes. this one are one of the many aliens that your crew were able to recover from the alien wreckages and escape pods. That alien you are looking at is the only one alive in _this_ science lab. Of course this one is not the only living alien specimen. We have dozens more in the Brig and in different labs onboard the _Iroquois_," replied Halsey.

To demonstrate why Halsey had brought Keyes towards the science lab, she walked towards the living alien, which was restrained down onto operating table by buckles and cuffs, and reached towards a very sharp scalpel. She carelessly dug the operating instrument into one of the eyes of the alien and plunged the blade deep.

The alien shrieked in response, through the gag it had it its mouth.

Keyes let out a relieved sighed when he saw the alien's reaction. The lack of signs to show high speed regeneration and resurrection, which made Types and their minions the most feared creatures to be encountered by humanity. Many including himself still feared even after the one sided slaughter of the aliens, that the aliens were maybe hiding their strength. It was reassuring that the aliens lacked two of the capabilities that had made Types a menace to humanity during the Type War.

Humanity besting the aliens in space warfare meant nothing to him and the UN military. One engagement was never enough to gauge an enemy's ability to wage war. The previous battle had been the first against the aliens and the _Iroquois_ had the element of surprise to catch the aliens off-guard. The outcome of the battle could have been completely different had the aliens been prepared for _Iroquois_.

He and humanity would only know the aliens capacity to wage war from seeing it for themselves after several battles and careful analysis.

At least Keyes was assured that the aliens could not regenerate or resurrect themselves like the Types and their minions had during the Type War. That was one less capability of the aliens that UN personnel, and the crew, would have to worry about.

"Have you insured that this alien was not an outlier? Is this alien the only one that is incapable of using magic,the ability to regenerate or resurrect itself when killed?" The Commander questioned, not risking the chance his crew acquiring potentially false or irrelevant information that could bite them in their asses later.

Halsey gave Keyes a dirty look but sighed in frustration.

"Yes if you want to proofs, here they are," answered the Professor in exasperation.

She pointed towards the many dead aliens around the science lab. Many were horribly mutilated and others were without a signal trace of injuries that could tell the cause of death.

Then Halsey walked towards one of the science lab's many computers and frantically plugged in commands. Every computer around the science lab lit up and began to show pictures, video and sound recordings and even reports. Everything reported the same thing. The aliens did not regenerate or resurrect themselves from death according to dozens of soldiers, scientist, analysts and doctors.

"That's all I have. Anything else is still under research and investigation."

Keyes moved closer to Halsey and whispered into her ears. "Officially you may be a civilian scientist, one of the best, but I know that you hold the rank of Naval Captain to overrule me when needed. Captain Catherine Halsey of United Nation's Intelligence. Is there anything you are hiding from me? Say like a potential secret that you or UNI would deem classified upon my rank."

"I swear Jacob, you have an intelligence that rivals my own. Not in the mathematical or scientific way but a military mind that would make you one of humanity's greatest tacticians given enough time," murmured Halsey under her breath.

Unknown to Halsey, Keyes had heard everything. He was less the ten centimeters away from her and his hearing was still sharp. Age meant nothing to humans, who lived in the 22nd century. Humans as of now were immortal to time, only when someone wished for time to age them did their physical and mental capacities began to weaken, but only slightly.

"From all the reports and dissections a conclusion has been reached that these aliens cannot regenerate or resurrect themselves like the Types. A lot of our findings were confirmed The aliens'computer systems have proved to be highly lucrative sources of information. They saved us the time and resources from having to research the alien biology as their computer systems were left unencrypted and open for anyone to access."

"What kind of species does not understand the importance of information," spoke Keyes in disbelief.

Halsey grinned in a devilish manner.

"The kind that does not understand the importance of knowledge," replied the Professor in delight. "Knowledge is power, hide it well."

The same statement was motto of the United Nation's Intelligence, and even older the motto of the mages for centuries.

The same motto that had protected the secrecy of magic and safety of mages from the rest of Humanity since the Age of Gods and until the Type War, where the mages revealed themselves and employed magic to ensure the survival of themselves and humanity from extinction by the Types during the Type War.

The United Nations, the interstellar governing body of humanity, had taken into special consideration of the importance of information and made it a top priority to safeguard knowledge at all cost, even with human lives. Information was deemed quintessential in protecting humanity from another possible case of extinction. Many of the military protocols used today had been developed to support that notion. The most famous and well known military protocol that exemplified the importance of information was the Cole Protocol, which placed denying information to aliens as being vital that anyone breaking the Cole Protocol was to be executed immediately with their family and friends imprisoned for life or executed too.

"As I was saying," continued Halsey. "The only information we have been able to extract and understand are those that are picture, videos and diagrams. The alien language is stopping us from getting to know everything on the alien computer systems. It could take months or even years before we can translate the alien's language."

"Professor, can you actually demonstrate that this alien will not regenerate and resurrect itself. I want to see first hand that these reports are true. Nothing else will satisfy my inability to completely trust the data that you have presented me today."

The Professor got off the computer and walked back towards the restrained alien, which was still screaming in agony with a scalpel piercing its left eye.

She placed her hands above the alien's chest by several centimeters.

Suddenly something appeared within her hands.

Keyes' battle-honed and survival instincts kicked in. Within a heartbeat, his mind and Magic Circuits were ready. At his lips was one word that would self-hypnotise himself and allow him to throw arcs of lightning.

"Shit, Jacob!" Halsey screamed in surprise.

In response to the Commander's sudden shift in stance from a relaxed one to battle-ready, Halsey dropped materialised bone-cutter from her hands. In the place of the bone-cutter were combat knife and pistol. Both her hands holding the butt of the pistol and the combat knife pointing downwards at the floor. The pistol on the other hand was pointed directly at Keyes' torso, where his heart would be.

Gravity pulled the bone-cutter down.

The restrained aliens gave out a muffed scream as the bone-cutter cut through its tough exoskeleton and deadly close to its organs.

"Pistol and combat knife. A typical CQC stance that allows you to rapidly switch between engaging armed and hand-to-hand combat. The legendary Close Quarter Combat martial arts that the Boss and Big Boss created, proved to be the ultimate fighting style by Solid Snake and tested in the Type Wars to be the most efficient and effective methods to kill, armed and unarmed," said Keyes in amused and analytical tone.

"Dammit, Commander. I nearly killed you, even when I knew I was not in life-or-death situation. You could have died from a bullet or two piercing your heart and head," growled Halsey in a dangerous tone.

"The Type War did scar us. Better to be prepared to do anything to survive then dead."

"The Type War is over. These aliens' recent performance in the last battle shows they are not a threat like the Types and likely will not be like those _menaces_."

Keyes smirked in a predatory way. While he was navy commander, the monster within still lived from the Type War.

Even Halsey smiled back in a similar manner when she meant not to.

The Type War had changed every human from that period. A period of strife where a life could end any second, anyone could be friend one moment and an enemy the next if it meant to survive. It was a terrible period where living humans from that era had a monster within them to ensure their personal survival.

The Professor was the first to lose tension. She sighed in defeat and slowly regained her breathing against the adrenaline pumping through her veins. While she detested being submissive, males were naturally hardwired to be more aggressive than females. If she was not the first to back down then the silent standoff could alter to a death match between the two with their inner monsters unleashed.

She dismissed the pistol and combat knife within her hands. They disappeared as they slowly faded away into particles and then into oblivion.

The predatory smirk nearly grew but Keyes reined in his unrestrained emotions. He did not need to satisfy the monster within. That monster did not need to let out. As the Professor had said, 'the Type War was over.' There was no need for that monster in which was necessary to survive the hellish existence of Earth back from _that era_.

He did not imagine lightning coming out of his fingers. Thus, his Magic Circuits cooled down and the prepared prana began to break down back into Od and Mana.

"As I was about to say," spoke out Halsey, dismissing the potential death match they had if they had released their inner monster, like nothing had happened. "You can see that the alien feels pain."

She reached towards bone-cutter, lodged there by gravity, to began twisting and turning it.

The alien screamed. The thick leather face binding, which also acted as gag, did not prevent the sound from escaping the alien's mouth.

Keyes and Halsey paid little attention to the alien's screams. What they were seeing and hearing right now was nothing compared to the horror they had saw, heard and committed on their own and to ensure humanity's survival in the Type War.

The words of the Fleet Admiral Preston Cole echoed the minds of Keyes and Halsey. "Show the alien bastards no mercy! They gave none to the billions of our brother and sisters, who died like insects! Let us show them, the alien bastards, the same treatment!"

Those very words were the justification how little they cared how the alien felt. After a century and half without a single trace of contact with aliens, the new generations of humans were willingly to forget the hatred and prejudice the older generation had towards aliens. Many of the _Iroquois_'s crew had been willing to treat other aliens nicely; but that notion was dashed when the _Iroquois _was peacefully broadcasting a First Contact package and was fired upon in response for a peaceful attempt to communicate.

UN High Command and the UN Assembly had given strict orders that since the aliens were willingly to fire upon a peaceful starship that had broadcasted First Contact package, then the aliens must had the same reasoning as the Types, the extermination of humanity, and thus were treated with the same amount of mercy.

The Commander's brows furrowed as he looked at the alien's physique. His tactical mind analysed the strength and weakness of the alien's body. He was becoming more and more wary as he analysed. The more information that he determined about the alien's physique then less pleasing the information he was gathered.

"How durable is the alien's exoskeleton?"

Halsey sighed and spoke, "The alien's exoskeleton does an excellent job at providing protection against sharp and blunt objects that would be found in any natural environment and basic tools. Against any weapon we use, even a basic combat knife, these aliens' exoskeleton break as easily as unaugmented and magically enhanced human bone."

"Are we talking pre-Type War unaugmented human bones?"

The Professor nodded and spoke. "Yes, pre-Type War unaugmented human bones and that is not including any enhancements available before the Type War via magic or surgery."

A tick off one of many properties of the alien's body, Keyes saw. He was happy that the alien's exoskeleton was not a natural body armour that was more durable then the weakest human body armour.

"What other property does the exoskeleton have that I should know?"

"It's an incredible natural radiation shield. This denotes that their homeworld or colonies are constantly filled with far amount of radiation, more than the natural radiation of Earth or any human colonies."

That was a problem. The UN had extensive military strategies and tactics that relied on radiation from nuclear weapons to kill by radiation poisoning, mutation causing health conditions such as cancer or ruined environment that the nukes could not reduce to ashes.

"Well nuclear bombardment will do nothing after the initial damage caused by the explosion, intense heat or overpressure to the aliens. The alien's natural radiation shield will protect them from the nuclear fallout and radiation poisoning of a nuclear weapon," spoke Keyes in a disappointed tone.

"Don't count nuclear bombardment out yet," scoffed Halsey in scolding tone. "Our nuclear weapons emit enough radiation to easily penetrate through the alien's exoskeleton. The alien's exoskeleton is designed to withstand long-term radiation from far away stars, not nuclear weapons."

Keyes happily whistled that UN extermination methods would work just as fine on the new aliens as it had on the Types.

Without warning, Halsey began to twist and turn the bone-cutter with more force than necessary to cut bone.

The aliens howled in pain in response and attempted break free on its bonds with the desperation of a cornered animals. It began to thresh around and pull at its bonds but it was unless. The bonds held and all the animal could do was struggle in pain.

The bone-cutter continued to twist and turn around that bone and organ was crushed and cut. Halsey did not stop there. She was ruthless and began to twist and turn the bone-cutter around the torso of the aliens.

The alien continued to shriek and thresh the more damage Halsey did until it reached the point that the alien had no human equivalent of a lungs and heart to breath and keep its blood pumping.

Keyes did not attempt to interfere in anyway. He just stood there and watched as Halsey destroyed every organ and bone in the alien's torso. The fact the aliens could not regenerate or resurrect did not pass through his thick skull even when he had been previously show, personally, that the alien could not regenerate. For all he knew the alien could have been preventing itself from regenerating.

Within minutes, Halsey practically destroyed every organ and bone within the alien's torso.

When Halsey withdraw the bone-cutter from the alien body, her clothes and body was covered in blood and gore. If that was not enough, the Professor materialise hammer. This was not just any everyday hammer but the type designed to crack armour – a warhammer. She brought the warhammer above her head and slammed it down directly onto the alien's face, where the nose would be.

SNAP!

The alien's corpse seemed to scream as the eye smash flesh and bone like it was nothing. The amount of force that the warhammer came down was unlikely with just pure strength alone as the warhammer smash through every bone in the alien's skull and even smashed the metal dissection table underneath.

Blood, gore and bone fragments literally rained. Halsey was the too close to avoid it and she made no attempt to dodge the blood, gore and bone fragments. Keyes was luckier as he was farther away from the alien corpse than Halsey was. He too did not shy away from getting hit but because he was too busy watching the alien corpse for any signs of high speed regeneration or resurrection.

"There this is the proof that the aliens do not regenerate nor resurrect themselves when killed. The first alien specimen had been killed in a similar manner as the one in front of you and even hours later there are no signs of the alien coming back to life anytime soon."

The Commander sighed in relief. He was now without a doubt convinced that the aliens could not regenerate or come back to life like the Types and their minions could.

For a moment, Keyes composed himself. He thought about what he needed answers for and asked.

"What about their weapons, armours and energy shield?"

The Commander saw Halsey jump up and down in glee. It was like she was filled with some incredible news that she could not wait to tell and was stopping herself from telling him because she was trying to build up suspense, which was doing more than excellent job at.

"The alien technology is a scientist's dream come true! We are talking about a science and technology completely foreign that is nothing like our own. Dark matter and dark energy is the key to the alien's technology as magic are to our own!"

"Dark energy and dark matter?" Keyes questioned with a raised brow. "Very few people are able to use magic or technology pertaining to dark matter and energy. Even with my limited knowledge of science, even I know that dark matter and dark energy is a relatively unexplored field of science."

"As you can imagine, the curiosity of this new knowledge gripped my team of scientists and myself. The first thing I did was to order every available technician and engineer to use Structural Analysis on every piece of alien technology they could get their hands on."

The Commander pretended to be mesmerised by the Professor's words. He knew from experience that there were times when it was better to listen to a scientist then debating about their findings, especially new findings that they thought was groundbreaking.

"Go on," prodded Keyes as he emphasised with his hands to continue on.

"The very first things that were examined were the aliens' firearms. It turns out that these aliens' weapons – the ones that fire projectiles – work on the same principle as our gauss weaponry. The aliens use electromagnetic forces to propel slugs. Two peculiar findings emerged. The first findings was the use of dark matter and dark energy. The second, is instead of firing bullets, they fired grains."

Every second word began to construct scenarios in which Keyes could imagine how the aliens' firearms operated. His personal experience in taking apart and reassembling gauss weapons made him know every nook and cranny. What confused him was how dark matter and dark energy was needed in a gauss weapon. He saw no need, but he could be wrong. Just as magic was used together with many aspects of technology, dark matter and dark energy could serve the same purpose of magic did for human technology as it did in alien technology.

"What does the dark matter and energy do with the aliens' firearms?"

"Somehow the mass changes when an electric current is run through the dark matter and it produces some kind of field which humanity has never encountered before. This field has a distinct affect on mass. Running a positive/negative electric current through the dark matter increases/decreases the mass of all objects within the field."

"So the dark matter creates a field using dark energy in which the mass increases or decreasing depending on the charge of electric current?" The Captain asked as he wanted a reconfirmation what he interpreted was correct.

"Yes that is basically what I mean," reconfirmed the Professor. "This is the first time that we have actually directly encountered dark matter and energy. For the first time in human history, the mystery of dark matter and energy is finally being investigated, instead of just be theorised. With the initial findings, some scientists are debating whether to rename dark matter and energy as Element Zero and Element Zero energy, respectively, because dark matter has no proton, hence being element zero on the periodic table. There is also talk about naming the field produced by the dark energy as Mass Effect Fields as anything within those fields either had their masses increased or decreased."

An education taught decades ago began to resurface. Keyes took some time but he remembered in perfect clarity of the information pertaining to the periodic table. The periodic table was determined by many properties of elements but the most basic way how the periodic table was organised was atomic number or number of protons inside an element. Dark matter or "Element Zero" would rewrite the periodic table and the basis which chemistry was based upon.

The Commander began to furiously shake his head and belittled himself for getting distracted. The science could come later. He had come from information necessary in fighting the aliens to increase the _Iroquois_'s performance against the aliens and therefore reducing the causalities his crew would incur from battle.

"Is there anything more?" Commander Keyes asked as he tried to use the told information relating to the alien firearms to formulate tactics.

Halsey began to eagerly nod and her eyes seem to glint with glee. If that was not enough the cocky smile on her face summed up her happiness.

"The energy shields that we have work by using enerized particles from particle accelerators to deflect and absorb energy and particles. In theory this would make energy shields resistant against any energy-based or projectile-based weapons and explosives. The alien's energy shields work on a different principle then our own. It seems to use some kind repulsive form of Mass Effect Field to deflect objects. Anything that has atoms seem to be absorbed by the alien's energy shields but radiation, heat and the cold seem to get through." Professor Halsey reported as she recalled everything off the top of her head.

That was a lot of information for Keyes to go through. Even through that was a lot of information for the Commander to process, he was extremely happy that the alien's energy shields had very clear weaknesses. He had already thought of several methods to exploit the alien's energy shields weakness and that was to use the massive amount of radiation and heat unleashed by nuclear weapon to cook the aliens with intense heat and radiation poisoning.

"Unlike humanity's approach of strengthening metal on a molecular level by strengthening chemical bonds and altering the properties of metals, the aliens have superdense and high mass metals. Weight for weight, our metals are vastly superior than the aliens," continued the Professor in her report.

Halsey's analysis on the aliens use of metal was contradicting the previous information that Keyes had gathered from the reports and his own experience of the aliens' warships armour performance. He did not know that Humanity's metals were vastly superior than the aliens. To notion had been the aliens' armour had been extremely thin and thus the reason why the alien warships were so easily destroyed without their energy shields to protect the hulls.

"Is that so? I had thought the aliens' warships were relatively easy to pentrate and destroy because they had relatively thin battleplatings and hulls," mused the Commander and without him knowing, he had spoken out his thoughts.

The Commander began to walk out of the science lab as he contemplated the information he had learned from his debriefing. He played over the information he had learnt several times and began analyse it from several different angles. Thus coming up with several different conclusions.

The Professor looked at the walking away Commander with a very offended look and even seem to glow red in anger. She spoke with in a growling manner, "are you suggesting that you can deduce alien technology better than me, Commander Jacob Keyes? What can a military commander see that a scientist and intelligence officer, such as myself, cannot?"

Suddenly a sense of dread assaulted the Commander. He felt a shiver down his spine. His instincts roared that he had dreaded into a very different sense of danger, different from life-or-death battles, but one involving a woman's undivided fury.

When Keyes turned around to see Halsey, there was several levitating objects behind her. Everything from rocks and rubber bullets kept materialising behind her and floated. It was only when Keyes saw Halsey directly in the eyes did he realise his predicament.

"Never ignore a woman," warned the Professor in a low and growling tone.

"Oh shit," mumbled the Commander and the objects went flying towards him.

* * *

(4/12/2014 for America or 12/4/2014 the rest of the world)

Dear Readers,

Part I of my fanfic is completely re-writen. I just need to get it betad by Skelo then I can release everything on a weekly basis.

Thank you for reading,

Leona-do.


	5. Insights

**Chapter Five "Insights"**

**0****5****45 Hours, February 14, 2157 / In Citadel Council Chambers**

The Citadel Council Chambers were the public chambers of legislative body known as the Citadel Council. It was this legislative body that consisted of three "Councillors", one racial each representative for three most powerful and influential species in Citadel space. These Councillors were three most powerful people in the known galaxy, which was Citadel space. Each and every Councillor represented their species' culture, way of life and philosophy of their people. It was these three Councillors that made up the Citadel Council and it was this council that made decision that affected the known galaxy.

The Citadel Council was open for the public to watch and participate in as petitioners and speakers. Like any other day, the Council was currently in an open session where petitioners could come up towards the Council and present their case. The Council would listen, debate and make a decision. This daily cycle was broken by a disturbance.

The cause was a Turian rushing through the room. Anyone blocking his path was violently shoved aside as he made his way to the Citadel Council. Nothing seemed to stop him. Not the specie, gender, mass, size and social position, stopped the rushing Turian. He skittered to a stop and faced the Citadel Council. The Turian had everyone's attention. It was impossible to miss him because of sound generate by him shoving through everyone or the noise someone would cause when they were shoved aside.

The Turian got a good look at the Citadel Council before he shouted, "Councillors, I bring an urgent message! Prothean Alive!"

The Citadel Councillors snapped out their current discussion and faced the Turian. He had the Citadel Council's undivided attention.

All around the Citadel Council Chambers, hidden guards, defensive fortification and turrets appeared out of nowhere.

The massive crowd that had inhabited the Citadel Council Chambers was completely surprise by the sudden appearances of guards and structures that had not been within the Citadel Council Chambers seconds ago. Many of the crowd were utterly confused by what was going on and others attempted to communicate with each other in chaos. Some in the crowd even attempted to contact with others using their omni-tools, only to find that any attempts of communicating anyone electronically impossible.

The civilian model omni-tools, which many in the crowd used, were fried by a powerful electromagnetic pulse. The few military-grade omni-tools that few in the crowd possessed were unaffected by the EMP, but were rendered unless as communication devices because jamming devices were rendering communications channels unless.

"Engage in non-lethal pacification!" Several loudspeakers blared within the Citadel Council Chambers.

The once hidden, but now visible guards, sent hand signs to each other. They held up their guns and pointed them towards the crowd.

The crowd began to panic when they found weapons at them. Confusion became chaos as everyone attempted to scramble out of the Citadel Council Chambers. They did not want to stick around became gunned down by the armed guards. To add further to the pandemonium was the crowd's inability to communicate with the world outside of the Citadel Council Chambers.

"Knock out grenades away!"

"The grenades are not enough! Use the canisters. That should knock out them all out."

The newly revealed guards threw and shot grenades and canisters of knock out gas into the crowd. With a crowd composed of different species, the dosage of the knock out gas took different amount of time to knock out the crowd, depending on their biology. Regardless how much resistance someone had to drugs and poisons, everyone who breathed in the knock out gas was rendered unconscious.

The guards were not knocked out unconscious as they were too far away from the knock out gas or wore air filter.

Some of the best Special Forces, that the Citadel space had to offer, rushed to secure the Citadel Council Chamber. The Turian's finest Special Forces, the Blackwatch, carefully scanned for any threat with the military professionalism and unbreakable discipline of the Turian race. Asari commandoes, amongst the greatest soldiers in Citadel space, glided with grace and patience of a deadly hunter to secure their elder matriarch. Salarian **S**pecial **T**ask **G**roup, or STG, agents were invisible ghosts that could only been seen through their slight shimmer of their tactical cloak, whom surrounded their racial representative on the Citadel Council.

"The Council is secured," shouted out one of the Citadel Council's personal guards.

The same message was repeated by the Blackwatch troops, Asari Commandoes and STG agents to each other. The message stopped when it was confirmed everything was safe.

"That was unnecessary." Sparatus said to his guards.

"We are just doing our jobs Councillor," one of the Blackwatch guards replied.

"What demands the activation of one of the emergency protocol that has been used only a handful times in history?" Esheel questioned as her race's famed curiosity began to act up.

Everyone – the Citadel Council and their bodyguards – were very curious to call emergency situation. The situation "Prothean Alive" was used to describe a very important event that could bring great change, which needed the attention of the Citadel Council's undivided and immediate attention.

"The Executor of Citadel Security deemed this information that I am going to tell you as too important for it to be sent through even the most secured communication channels, lest someone or group such as the Geth or Shadow Broker, were to intercept this top priority message," answered the Turian messenger. "We have an emergency that is unprecedented in the history of Citadel space."

"What would that be," asked Tevos as her own curiosity became aroused. "The codename 'Prothean Alive' had been created in the mind to immediately alert the Citadel Council and require our immediate attention, such as the event of finding a still living Prothean(s) – no matter how impossible it is."

"A dreadnought sized starship of unknown design appeared out of nowhere, using so unknown method of FTL. From what I was told, the unknown starship came out a black hole," responded the Turian messenger.

"No, no, no. Incorrect observation. Unknown form of FTL must be another unexplored method of interstellar travel. The supposed 'black hole' is most likely a wormhole that makes use of opening a hole in space-time to enter and exit another dimension," hypothesised Esheel, even without knowing she was began to go off tracks to explain the phenomena.

"Ignore my colleague, she is scientist," barked Sparatus. "There is no room for speculation. That can come later. What I need and will deal with is only facts. And I want facts now!"

"My apologies, Councillor," replied the Turian messenger.

"Relax, Sparatus. One starship cannot be more of a threat than any dreadnought. Even if somehow this unknown starship was to be as powerful as the _Destiny Ascension_, there is the entire Citadel Defence Fleet of numbering in the hundreds," spoke Tevos in a motherly tone.

Tevos waved towards the Turian messenger to continue speaking.

The Turian messenger nodded and brought up his right hand. With a press of a talon to his right wrist, his orange omni-tool shone to life. A three dimensional image of a starship appeared with all the data such as mass, dimensions and energy readings.

No one in the Citadel Council Chambers recognized the design of the projected starship. The starship was angular and possessed hard surfaces of many basic geometrical shapes such as triangles to octagons The best words to explain the projected starship was that it was one ugly mass put into space. It looked like a flying brick in space.

"Too many unknowns and only guesses. We need more facts before any real action. I suggest we restrict traffic into and out of the Citadel and nearby Mass Relays to a minimum. The Citadel Defence Fleet should steer clear of the vicinity of the unknown warship to prevent agitating and threatening the occupants," recommended Esheel.

"I disagree. Don't you see restricting traffic and the patrolling of the Citadel Defence Fleet is a sign of weakness? Just because of one dreadnought sized warship does not mean we should accommodate this new race. We need to show these newcomers we have the strength and numbers to not be trifled with," refuted Sparatus.

"We are not violent people, Sparatus," chided Tevos like a mother would scold her child. "The Citadel Council exists for a reason. We have existed for centuries to allow peace and prosperity via non-violent negotiations."

"Agreed. I vote for my recommendation to be acted," spoke Esheel.

"Seconded," agreed Tevos.

"Haaa," sighed Sparatus in defeat. "It seems I am outvoted. The Council has spoken."

"The Citadel Defence Fleet will keep any non-military starship away from the unknown starship of a distance of a million kilometers. C-Sec is to secure passage for the aliens if they were to step feet onto the Citadel. Clear the Council's schedule until further notice. This is First Contact with an unknown race, making this pressing situation over unimportant petitions and meetings. All petitions and meetings are to be relegated towards a later date. This Council Meeting is now adjourned," announced Tevos in a loud and charismatic voice.

"Of course, Councillors. I will relay your orders at once," replied the Turian messenger.

The Turian messenger began to fanatically plug and speak into his omni-tool.

At the same time, the Citadel Council was escorted out of the Citadel Chambers by their personal bodyguards.

- O -

"Beginning the sweep," shouted out several voices.

The voices came from the Councillors' personal guards. They were sweeping the meeting room for any possible hidden listening devices. Precaution was necessary when dealing with very sensitive information that was going to be discussed within the meeting room.

Asari Commandos, Turian Blackwatch and Salarian STG worked together to sweep the room several times for hidden listening devices. There was nothing like extreme paranoia when dealing with information that was too sensitive that it was only for the Citadel Council's eyes and ears.

"The room's clean." A STG agent announced.

To make sure the meeting room was hundred percent clean, the Special Forces continued to sweep the room for several minutes until every centimeter of the room had been inspected several times by different people. It was only when every single guard to the Citadel Council was sure that the room was clean of any surveillance tools did they stop sweeping the room.

The Special Forces began to leave the meeting room in orderly fashion, leaving the Citadel Council alone in room.

"Sealing the room," An automated voice spoke as the – only entrance and exit – blast door closed.

When the door closed, the Councillors looked around the room in amazement. While it was not visible there impressive amount of hardware invested into making the meeting room extremely secure from attack and surveillance. The blast door and walls were one metal of solid metal that would often serve as armour plating on a Citadel dreadnought. The blast door and walls were both hardened to prevent any signals from going in and out of room; an insurance policy that in the case that a hidden listening device was not found. For all intents and purposes nothing spoken within the room would be leaked unless one of the Citadel Councillors spilled the secret discussed within the room.

"So what are our short and long term plans?" Tevos asked, acting her usual customary role as the debate initiator, as she walked towards and sat down in one of the three chairs within the secured meeting room.

Esheel followed suit and took seat. She did not speak but leaned forward and activated the meeting room's center holotable. The holotable activated to show a very large three dimensional projection of the unknown dreadnought sized starship.

The Turian Councillor scanned the room one last time before he sat down in the last vacant seat.

"We must proceed with extreme caution. We cannot rush to act. To do so could lead to the very consequences we wish to avoid. It's not like we are in a rush; we have plenty of time ahead of us. There are no pressing concerns that require our immediate attention. I say we go nice and easy on these newcomers," voiced Esheel.

Tevos nodded in agreement.

"Don't you see that this is a heavily armed and armoured warship," Sparatus pointed at the projected image's various recessed weapon systems that dotted the entire hull, "with enough firepower to rival any dreadnought. This starship possesses more firepower then needed to deal with pirates and asteroids."

Esheel and Tevos could not disagree on that point. It was obvious that the unknown starship was a warship. The projected image screamed a martial purpose.

"Many do not know this but during my maiden years, I was a mercenary that specialised in engineering travelling all around the galaxy for about three centuries," spoke Tevos.

Esheel and Sparatus cringed, or their race's equivalent. It was unthinkable that Asari Councillor Tevos as not being the wise and motherly figure she was renowned for. That image had been created over a century and half as service as the Asari Councillor. For her to be young, rebellious and adventure hungry asari maiden was impossible to imagine.

Tevos ignored her fellow colleague's reaction and continued on, "in those three centuries as a young asari maiden I have encountered all sorts of engineering from those of Citadel races to the abandoned ruins of extinct races. With those experiences I can tell you several findings about these aliens." Tevos tapped her omni-tool and the hull of the projected starship became highlighted, "The absence of a complex exterior design could mean a lack engineering and construction capabilities or something else entirely. A simple design exterior design could mean that resources instead could have been invested elsewhere like in its internal structure."

"Without complex and unnecessary shapes and designs, the projected starship could use simplistic but a robust internal design such internal honeycomb structure and cross-bracings. If the projected starship had foregone a complex exterior design for robust interior structure than it could take a tremendous amount of beating for a starship of its size and tonnage," interjected Esheel as she recognised what Tevos was getting at.

"I don't know that much about engineering to agree or disagree with you but I do that this is beyond ridiculous," Sparatus pointed to the data relating to thickness of the projected starship, "what kind of race needs several meters of armour plating?"

"The meters thick armour plating make up for lack of shields," analysed Esheel. "The newcomer's hulls are made out of very durable and light form of titanium, never encountered before. This would allow these newcomer's warships to move quickly and more maneuverability yet still possess a formidable hull."

"Whatever the case, we know that these newcomers are heavily armed and armoured. They are prepared to wage war as much as peace. Why else send powerful warship and not open fire?" Tevos said in a calm manner.

Tevos' colleagues remained silent and contemplated her rhetorical question. While they understood Tevos' point they attempted to analyse her point from every point of view. It was difficult and sometimes impossible to understand and predict an unknown species' actions without knowing their culture. Even with centuries and many cases of First Contact with many different alien species, it never became easier to understand the mind of an unknown race.

"How could they have discovered the location of the Citadel? It is astronomically low to just discover the Citadel by chance," voiced Sparatus in a concerned tone.

"Agreed," added Esheel. "It is close to impossible that a new race to stumble upon the Citadel by sheer chance."

Tevos shook her head and spoke out, "I disagree. What about how the Asari and the Salarian stumbling upon the Citadel? Both our races came across the Citadel by sheer chance. So have the other Citadel races that came to find the Citadel independently."

Sparatus nodded in agreement as he too knew well that her statement was certainly true. His own people had discovered the Citadel independently from any other help.

"A general alert should be sent out throughout Citadel space to warn the future appearance of further unknown starship," suggested Sparatus.

Tevos and Esheel agreed with the notion and used their omni-tools to send orders to their subordinates to relay.

"How much information should be provided to the public? It is going to be very difficult to contain any information relating to the appearance of an unknown starship in Citadel space. Any successful cover up will result in a lot of body bags and accidental deaths. STG may be able to carry out a successful cover up operations but it will most likely fail by the number of people who already know," said Esheel.

"No we cannot at all attempt to cover up the appearance of these newcomers. The entire Citadel Defence Fleet knows already. The extranet is probably flooded with pictures and comments of the unknown starship. Not the mention the public outrage if they discovered any attempts to cover up or censor information relating about the newcomers. We must simply leave the public to their own devices," spoke out Tevos in an appalled tone.

"It's not worth the effort," agreed Sparatus.

"Onto another topic," prompted Esheel. "Are we going to go in blind?"

"Absolutely not," protested Sparatus in a anger manner. "We need more information on these before we act. Going in blind is a foolish notion."

Tevos listened in the discussion as well as use her omnitool at the same time. Her species' fame for multitasking was beginning to show. The asari's innate biotic ability made it absolutely necessary to simultaneously control their body and nervous system to manipulate Mass Effect fields to control biotics, without the two happening at the same time it was impossible for any asari to use biotics. The millennium long lifespan of the asari also helped where multitasking could be honed over the centuries.

Her mind was literally making two parallel analyses and conclusions on two different subjects at the same time. One came from the discussion between Esheel and Sparatus, while the other was from searching and reading all the data that was available on the newcomer's warship on her omnitool.

"What is your opinion, Tevos?" Esheel asked the Asari Councillor like how a child would ask the wisdom of an elder.

"I agree with Sparatus. We cannot go into any situation blind but at the same time, we cannot do anything to offend the newcomers. For all we know any harmless attempt to gain any information might equate to an act of war for the newcomers," responded Tevos in a wise manner. "Besides, all the information we want is in front of us."

The Salarian and Turian Councillor became confused by Tevos' statement. Her cryptic message was confusing and they attempted to decode her meaning to no avail.

The Asari Councillor sighed. She did not bother to speak to explain and used opted to use action to explain. A few commands into her omni-tool and she got the reaction she wanted.

The omni-tools on the Salarian and Turian Councillor's right wrist glowed and beeped, signifying that they had received a message. When they opened their omni-tools to investigate the message, they jaws slacked in shock.

"The answer was right in front of you the entire time," said Tevos in cheeky tone and a grin plastered on her face. "The First Contact Package has all the information we should need for now."

Esheel wanted to smack herself in the head for miss something so obvious. The First Contact Package had been the first thing that the newcomers had broadcasted on every communication channel and the Turian messenger had tagged the First Contact Package as a high priority items that the Citadel Council should read. It seemed her advance age was catching up to her. Even if she was a former STG agent, she was losing her edge. Her people needed a sharper and more attentive person to represent them on the Citadel Council. She promised herself that she would resign after the First Contact with the newcomers.

"This is going to be extremely problematic. We are going to take months if not years to translate the language of these newcomers. Unless one of the newcomers comes in contact with an asari to meld and learn their language," mused Sparatus, he did not even notice that he had spoken his thought out a loud.

"There. That's our plan of action," said Tevos in amused tone.

"Wait what?" Sparatus responded as he snapped out of his thoughts.

"You just gave us our plan of action," replied Tevos with a glint of mischievous in her eyes.

"I shall get STG's finest scientist and analysts to sift through the First Contact Package and construct a understandable messenger to tell the newcomers that one of them should come personally onto the Citadel," spoke out Esheel. "Tevos, can you arrange an asari who could do the meld with the newcomers?"

"I will make the call."

- O -

Anyone who learnt about the newcomers knew the galaxy was going to change. How much the galaxy would change, no one knew. But nevertheless the galaxy was going to shift in ways that had never happened before. This First Contact would be unique from any other First Contacts the Citadel Council and Citadel space had and will have. It would bring more changes to the known galaxy than any past or future First Contact.


	6. Peaceful Contact

**Chapter Six "Peaceful ****Contact****"**

**0800 Hours, February 19, 2157 / Citadel**

"Remember, you are to only retaliate if the aliens harm us," reminded a feminine voice in a very stern manner.

The feminine voice belongs to a fully grown woman in her late twenties. Her flowing and glossy raven black hair and skin tone denoted Asian heritage. The eyes betrayed her Asian heritage as they were aqua blue. She wore a white blouse, black pants and crimson coat trench coat that reached her shins.

"_I have fought over a thousand battles_," replied masculine voice half serious and half joking manner.

A fully grown male in his late twenties was the owner of the masculine voice. Unlike his colleague, his hair was snow-white and his skin was very tanned. Eyes of grey steel peeked out from a hawk-like brow. His attire was a strange one; consisting of what looked form fitting black body armor and metal boots. He wore a strange red trench coat that was missing the torso section and pinned onto his body with catholic crosses.

"Hmmh!" The raven haired woman huffed.

"We represent humanity so don't act so childishly," teased the white haired man in light hearted tone.

"Says the man who wants to be a hero," playfully snapped the aqua-eyed woman.

"I already am a hero," refuted the tanned man.

The two continued to bicker between each other but was interrupted.

"Ambassadors, ETA in five minutes," called a voice over the cargo hold's speakers.

"We hear you loud and clear," responded the raven-haired woman as she pressed down the button to activate an intercom.

The white-haired man calmly scanned his surroundings to ease his mind.

He and his female companion sat directly opposite each other in cargo hold of a Pelican Dropship. The cargo hold was about seven meters long, five meters wide and three meters tall with enough room to fit an entire platoon of soldiers and their equipment. The white haired man counted thirty seats and enough still room for about twenty or so people to stand. Each available space on the walls and ceiling of the cargo hold were covered in all kinds of military equipment from food to explosives.

Some of the military equipment was possible useful for the task at hand, but he dismissed such thoughts. He did need to go armed into a diplomatic mission. That was a foolish concept even if they were working into a potential warzone. His magic was more than enough when the situation turned sour.

"I don't know how the aliens could respond so quickly. We had only sent the First Contact package about three hours ago and the aliens have already a video for us to understand," said the raven-haired woman.

"Rin, we are dealing with an entire galactic community here, if the First Contact package we received was anything to go by. I saw more than six alien species on the First Contact package. They must have a lot of experience with First Contact scenarios to respond so quickly and in a way that we could understand," responded the white haired man.

"I know, Shirou," sighed Rin. "It just makes me feel uneasy not knowing anything. I'm so used to having information beforehand any situation I go."

Shirou shook his head in disappointment. Life would be dull if one knew all the information pertaining to a possible situation. Adventure and a sense of achievement came from overcoming the unknown. That was why he did not bother to learn everything about every situation beforehand. And it was impossible to do so.

"What are you expecting?" Shirou inquired.

"A lot," replied Rin. "The fact that there was a reply, hours later after the exchange in First Contact packages, must mean the aliens must have somehow translated our language."

"You could be simply wrong," refuted the white haired man.

The raven haired woman glared at him. Her gaze literally screamed 'explain.'

"This meeting could be an attempt to translate our language or the alien's so either party could understand each other," continued Shirou.

"How would the alien's somehow translate ours or their language from a meeting?" Rin asked very curiously.

She watched her friend's body language very closely for attempts to lie or tell half-truths. The white haired man may be a legendary hero from the Type War but he was not the ideal hero, where he would save everyone and never commit crimes to get the job done. When lives were on the line he was more than willingly to commit unsavoury acts if it meant lives could be saved. Shirou was the type of person that cared only for human lives, nothing more. Reputation, wealth and power did not matter to him.

Shirou merely shrugged and gave Rin an amused smile, which infuriated her.

Rin's brows twitched in annoyance. She pointed her index finger at the white haired man and black orb flew at him.

Instincts honed over a century of constant warfare and the ability to read human body language with incredible accuracy was Shirou's saving grace. He merely swayed his head to the left to avoid the white orb. Shirou even had to attempt to fight his body's natural reaction to impale Rin with a blade of some sort. It was only because of him being used to Rin's outburst of anger that allowed him know beforehand not to attack his friend.

Shirou did not bother to speak but merely raised his left brow and a questioning gaze.

"Hmmh!" Rin huffed her customary reaction after an outburst.

"Really how old are you, hundred and sixty-seven? When will you learn not to attack someone with a curse such as a Gandr?"

The muscles around Rin's temples and forehead seemed to squeeze and flex like how someone would show off their muscles in their arms. Her brow was the most obvious example. It was constantly twitching. One moment Rin's brow was at its natural place then the next it would shoot up to her forehead.

A sense of foreboding washed over Shirou. He knew that he was in for another one of Rin's infamous outbursts.

"Shirou!" Rin screeched and fired entire barrage of black orbs at him.

Unluckily for Shirou, the cargo hold of the Pelican Dropship was immensely small and gave him little room to dodge. Within seconds he was riddled with …

- O -

"Opening the cargo hold in five, four, three, two, one, mark!" The voice dramatically announced – in between giggles – over the Pelican's cargo hold's speakers.

Shirou and Rin could only roll their eyes at the Pelican Dropship's pilot's giggles. Just because Rin had threw a fit and fired several curses like how a child would threw a tantrum and objects did not mean they were children It did not help that Shirou had attempted to escape Rin's fury like a guilty child running away for breaking a window. According to the pilots' words, 'they were one of the most childish adults she had ever encountered.'

The hatch, which served as the primary entrance and exit in and out of the Pelican, began to slowly open. It seemed to take minutes to move, unlike the five seconds it actually takes.

Time slowed down. Adrenaline rushed through their veins. Their brains worked beyond normal parameters. They were after all involved in history in the making. The moment at hand would most likely be remembered in history as one of the most important moments in human history. Humans for the first time would step onto an alien space station and meet aliens without fighting on sight.

When the hatch finally opened up and touched the metal floor of the alien station, Shirou and Rin literally stopped breathing or thinking. Instincts and experiences from the Type War kicked in. Everything was a potential danger. Even the smallest object was a weapon to be used in ways that they could only imagine. The very sight of nothing could be a person hidden behind an advanced technology or spell to make someone invisible.

Shirou uploaded several blades of choices within his mind. It would take only a thought to project them into reality and rain down blades. Even his favoured weapons of choices – Kanshou and Bakuya – seemed to be ready to leap into existence.

Rin made preparations of her own. Gems of all sizes and shape were hidden under her cloths. In her mind she had a magic tome open to unleash a barrage of all sorts of spells designed for killing and destruction. A single thought was all that was needed to draw prana from her gems and show her immense repertoire of spells.

Instead of finding any potential danger or threat, they found single unarmed alien. The alien looked amazingly human but lacked several common features of one. The most obvious was the skin tone. Human skin tone ranged from snow white of albinos to dark chocolate of the Africans. The alien had a cyan blue skin tone. In the place of where a human would have hair, the alien had thick cartilage. In fact, the alien was so human-like that the alien could actually pass as a human with being unfortunate of having an extreme genetic mutation to explain the lack of hair and skin tone.

For a second, Shirou and Rin unconsciously let their guard down thinking that a human was in front of them. All their thoughts of cautiousness and hostility banished until the alien spoke some unknown language and beckoned them to come towards it. Realising that it was an alien in front of them and not a human, they reassumed cautiousness and hostility.

"Should we trust it?" Rin whispered to her friend.

While Rin was much more intelligent than her friend, there were many areas that Shirou outclassed her. She was simply an academic researcher and a mage, who could bring forth a devastating amount of firepower with her impressive knowledge and skill with magic. Her life in the Clock Tower gave her an amazing edge in reading people for the slightest body language but that was limited to politics and reading people during peaceful situations. When it came to battlefield awareness and reading the action of potentially hostile person, Shirou was an unparalleled master. His formidable experience in fighting meant that he had to be able to read the smallest changes in body language because every movement in a fight could end his life.

"My instincts are telling me we should trust the alien for now. It appears to be unarmed but it could have hidden weapon on its body that we don't know of or has skills in a form of magic that humanity has yet to encounter," whispered back the white haired man as he kept a constant vigilance.

Rin imagined connecting to the Pelican Dropship's electronic systems and opened a communication channel with the pilot.

"_Get ready to lift off at any given notice_," commanded Rin towards the pilot. 

"_Copy that Ambassador_," confirmed the pilot.

When she heard the confirmation, Rin gave her friend a nod.

Shirou nodded back to say that he understood and slowly walked down the hatch. He held his hands at shoulder level with his palms up to show that he was unarmed and slowly made his ways towards the alien while keeping a careful eye around his surroundings. 

His metal boots lightly tapped the metal hatch underneath him but the lack of any background noise seemed to magnify the sound of metal on metal much more loudly. 

Whilst Shirou slowly made his way towards the alien, Rin closed her eyes and extended her sixth sense. It was this sense that detected the usage of magic but she had taken her sixth sense to another level by honing over decades to allow her to detect even the smallest amount of Od and mana. She had reached the stage where her sixth sense could give her a general approximation of the even smallest of animals. 

Her mind activated her Neural Implant, which reached to connect to Shirou's Neural Lace, and when she was able to connect to his mind she spoke in binary, "_there are several hidden aliens. I am reading most of them being a hundred meters away from you. Since you can't see them, they must be invisible - I do not know if it is because of technology or magic._"

"_I see them. To the ordinary augmented human sight the invisible aliens would have not been seen but to my magically enhanced sight I can easily see them. You missed several snipers too. Five snipers at varying locations and distance,_" responded Shirou in the same method. "_Also it seems the aliens either do not use magic or have a method to hide it._"

"_No it's likely that these aliens do not know any magic at all if the First Contact Battle was anything to go by_," replied the raven haired woman. "_Oh since you have most likely not noticed, these aliens seem to possess about the average unaugmented mage's generation of Od. And I am picking quite a lot of mana saturated in the air. Since there are no leylines in space, that means either a lot of aliens live on this space station or there is wildlife on this space station._"

"_Are you telling me all these blue skinned aliens have the are on par with a first generation unaugmented mage in terms of just Od generation?_" Shirou asked in an alarmed tone.

"Yep," chirped Rin.

That got Shirou analysing the most pressing data. The first was that the space station he was on had to be some sort of floating city in space; with possibly millions calling it home. The other explanation for why the air was saturated with mana without a leyline was that the alien space station was for farming purposes or a gigantic zoo, which did not make sense. Why would a zoo have a defence fleet that could rival the Home Fleet defending Earth. The defence fleet alone suggested that this space station was some sort of galactic hub for commerce or politics.

The white haired man connected to the Pelican's pilot's Neural Lace and spoke in binary, "_relay this message to the _Pillar of Autumn_. 'We hit the gold mine.'_"

"_Relaying now_," responded the pilot. "_Captain Keyes has given the green lights to go ahead._"

"_I read you,_" Shirou replied. "_Did you get that, Rin?_"

Shirou turned to look at Rin. When he saw her, she nodded and at the same time pointed at him for some reason. He was confused by why she was pointing at him. It was not once but she kept constantly pointed in his direction. Deciding to humour her, Shirou looked around his surroundings.

He found very pissed off looking cyan blue skinned alien, or what looked like a pissed woman in human terms. At first glance a normal person would have mistaken the alien of having a bland expression but Shirou could see beyond that blank mask. It was the slightest twitch of the brows that was an indicator of the blue skinned alien's anger. The definite evidence that let him know the alien was pissed was the eyes that seemed to glow with suppressed agitation. 

A brow was raised in response. He was confused to why the alien could be angry at him. Shirou was sure that he had done nothing to piss the alien off. Maybe it was because he ignored the alien when he should have greeted it and instead turns around to look at Rin?

"Greetings," the white haired man called out, even though he knew it was close to impossible that the alien could understand him. "My name is Shirou Emiya," he pointed towards himself and then gestured towards his friend, "and that is my friend Rin Tohsaka."

Its eyes seemed to glow with curiosity. The alien in response opened its mouth to speak in its alien language. It pronounced several sounds and pointed towards itself.

It was not that difficult for Shirou and Rin to understand what the alien was attempting to do. The alien was attempting introduce itself in the same method that Shirou had introduced Rin and himself. 

"_Well it seems this species of aliens are near identical - if not the same - as us - humans - when it comes down to expression, body language and biology,_" thought the white haired man.

When the alien suddenly began to walk towards Shirou, he quickly stiffened his body then relaxed. He saw the alien was actually walking very slowly, tip toeing towards him. The alien held up its hands at shoulder level and palm facing towards him to show it held no weapons. Shirou near the alien meant no harm as his instincts were not screaming that he was in danger and the alien was gesturing the human equivalent of 'I mean no harm.'

Rin's eyes opened momentarily. She was about to act when she remembered her own advice, 'only to retaliate if the aliens harms us.' It was devastating to remember that Shirou's and her own actions could affect countless humans. If they were to successful negotiation some sort of peace accord or treaty then they would ensure peace and prosperity for humanity. Failure on their part would mean war and deaths.

"Rin, don't worry. This alien must be looking for something like a computer to bridge the language barrier," Shirou spoke through Rin's Neural Lace via binary codes.

She in response wore a forced smile. Her eyes carefully observed the alien's movement with extreme caution. While she could not risk starting war with her action she also had to look strong. To show a weakness meant that as representatives of humanity the aliens could misunderstand that humanity was weak and therefore using force like war to achieve their ambitions.

The moment the alien anyway hurt Shirou; she would have a reason to use violence. She easily had a reasonable excuse that could be used to avert war if needed.

"Haahh," muttered the raven haired woman in confusion.

"What are you doing?!" Shirou shouted out.

Both Shirou and Rin were surprised by the alien's actions. It just leaned forward and gently pressed its right palm on Shirou's forehead and muttered two words in its language.

At the moment when the alien touched Shirou's forehead, Rin lost her connection to Shirou's Neural Lace. That meant either two scenarios. Shirou had forced the connection shut or something had caused the connection to severe. Neither was good news.

"Shirou!"

- O -

"Embrace Eternity."

The moment she touched the alien was the moment she initiated the meld. While it was taboo in the Asari culture to forceful meld without someone against their will, there were special circumstances that forceful meld were allowed such as First Contact. It would normally take months, years and even decades to break through the language barrier with newly discovered aliens but with a meld that could be bypassed.

She was surprised to encounter a very powerful mental barrier, the kind only well trained mind against a forceful meld. It was like a wall was blocking her from entering the alien's mind. Whether the mental barrier was natural or consciously placed, it was equal to any Asari Matriarch's mental defence.

At first she gently probed around to see if she could enter the alien's mind but found no gap. A sharp jab did nothing. When she found that the mental barrier had not weakened at all she prepared to stronger action. Then without warning she felt a sharp pain at her own mental barrier. It felt like a blade of some sort had attempted to counter attack, which could not be possible as not species capable of any mental attacks were asari.

While she was confused at the possibility at how this alien could be mentally attacking her own mental barriers, she found herself under attack of waves of mental blades. Not even a second passed and a rain of blades was overwhelming her mental barrier. Her mind's defences were about to fall. She hastily reinforced her mind, only to find that it was delaying the impossible. Her mind's defences were falling faster than it could be rebuilt.

Wave after wave, the mental attacks – in form of blades – kept raining down until she realised defending would only delay the inevitable. Instead, she launched an all out attack. That reaction caught her attacker off-guard and she finally penetrated the alien's mental defences in one mighty push.

"What is this?!" The Asari Matriarch shouted in disbelief and shock.

She had been expecting some sort of mental image that allowed access the alien's memories. Instead, she found a never ending plain barren of all life except lush grass. Everywhere around her there were blades of all kinds, shapes and purposes struck into the ground like gravestones. The blades covered the entire plain beyond what the eye could see. When she looked up, she discovered bathed in twilight from the extended horizon.

"Trend carefully alien. This is my world!" A voice warned in a loud voice.

The blue skinned asari turned around and faced the direction in which the voice came. She found the alien whom she had forcefully melded with. An angry visage looked at her with what could be male asari, if there were even such thing.

"Please calm down, I did mean any harm," gently spoke the Asari Matriarch.

The alien's anger seemed to shift to that of a scorn and then began laugh.

"You call invading my own mind not attempting to harm me? I would think better," responded the white haired alien. "I will forgive your intrusion into my mind if it was for the sake of eliminating the language barrier. Now what is your name?"

A relieving sigh came as the asari matriarch had thought for a second that alien would lash out at her for entering his mind against his will. She thanked the Goddess that the alien was reasonable and not violent person. A reasonable person would mean diplomacy would work.

"My name is Benezia T'Soni," the Asari Matriarch introduced herself.

"You would not have been unable to understand what I said before in the real world but I will repeat myself once more. My name is Shirou Emiya," spoke out the white haired alien. "How is it that you understand me here in my mind? I made sure that you could not access my memories before going through me."

Benezia pouted as she thought of an explanation for the phenomena. She too had no idea as there had been no reason to learn how language barriers to be ignored during melding. There had been no reason for under to learn why until now and now she thought about it there were only few mentions to explain.

"I am not exactly sure but I believe it has to do with the fact that during melding, both participates have briefly unified nervous system," explained the Asari Matriarch as she made her own conclusions from what she knew.

"So this 'melding' was what allowed you to enter my mind?" Shirou questioned, curiously.

She nodded.

"You can understand me here – in my mind – but will you be able understand my language after this meeting and in the real world?"

For a second, she was confused. She could not really say the correct answer as she had never melded with someone for the sole purpose of gaining knowledge about for a language. Yes, she had in past forced her way through the minds of others for information but never a language that was unknown to Citadel space. It could be possible that she could be able to understand the alien's language after she left his consciousness but she did was not going to bother to test the theory out. Just attempting to forcefully meld with the alien had been intense task and not to mention the pain from having her mental barriers assaulted by blades.

"Unlikely," the Asari Matriarch replied. "There is guaranteed way so that I can understand your species' language."

Shirou gave the asari matriarch a suspicious look and asked, "That wouldn't involve going through my mind?"

"Of course, how else do you expect me to learn your language?" Benezia responded with a question of her own.

"_Trace On_," chanted the white haired alien.

"What are you do-," Benezia spoke before she was cut off.

An ornamental dagger came slashing down at Benezia.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr-"

- O -

"Rrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without warning, sniper rifles were the first to be fired followed by assault rifles.

Suddenly several aliens appeared out of nowhere. They wore what looked like the human equivalent of hardsuits. The aliens that had dropped their invisibility were the same species as the alien that was touching Shirou. Gunfire poured at the white haired man.

"Rho Aias!" Shirou announced as he brought up his right arm.

A flower-like shape formed around the white haired man. It took a form of six petal pink flower. When looked at from a distance there appeared what looked like seven layers of flowers. The flower-like shape blocked every single projectile that came towards Shirou from the magnetically accelerated grains from the assault rifles and the pinky sized bullet from a sniper rifle. In fact, the grains and bullets harmless smashed into the flower-like shape and did not even leave a mark on it.

"Stop firing at once. Matriarch Benezia is unharmed!" The white haired man shouted, he enhanced his lungs and voice box so that his voice would boom.

Rin was utterly confused by the turn of events. She had just seen the alien touch Shirou's forehead for a second before it screamed, what she presumed from pain, and collapsed backwards unconscious. What was even stranger was how her friend had suddenly speak in a language that she knew was not human.

It seemed even more bizarre that the armed aliens seemed to be able to understand him.

The aliens for a second seemed to hesitant what to do as they were no longer firing at the white haired man and some of the aliens even lowered their guns, slightly.

"I am going to slowly walk away from your Matriarch! So lower your weapons!" Shirou shouted with authority, in the blue skinned alien's language and his voice boomed across the hallway.

For several seconds, the aliens seemed to be deciding whether or not to comply. It was only after a few words and hand signs between the aliens did they decide to lower their weapons but in a position that they could easily point and fire their weapon in a heartbeat.

During the time that the aliens stopped firing, Shirou dropped his right arm and the pink flower-like shield disappeared. He quickly jogged towards Rin.

She was about to ask a question when she found herself grabbed by her friend and lifted onto his shoulder. He sprinted into the Pelican Dropship's cargo hold and shouted, "Close that hatch and lift off!"


	7. Negotiations

**Chapter S****even**** "Negotiations"**

**1534**** Hours, February ****21****, 2157 / Presidium**

"Can you understand me, ambassadors?" A voice called out.

The two humans, walking down the hatch of a Pelican Dropship, turned to the voice and found a rather strange sight.

What they saw was something, which seemed to be a combination of a reptile and a bird with a humanoid shape. In the place of fingers were talons and the figure seemed to be missing what would be the human equivalent of ears.

"We can understand you," replied the raven haired woman. "How is it that you can speak English?"

The alien paused to think for a second before it replied, "I am able to speak your language, 'English,' because my omni-tool is translated my language into your own for you to understand."

"Is this 'omn-itool' in anyway a wrist held multitool that can function portable computer, diagnostics and repair tool?" The white haired man asked the alien.

To the amazement of the white haired man and raven haired woman, the alien nodded. That should be impossible as that was a human form of expression or was it? Whatever the case, they remembered to include this on their report to their superiors.

"To answer your first question, I believe Matriarch Benezia was to provide the language translation," spoke out the alien.

"_Did Matriarch Benezia meld with others to provide the language translation?_" The white haired man thought. "_The asari melding is definitely something like a touched based telepathic spell. That confirms the aliens must have some form of magic._"

"Is your legislative body ready to meet?" The raven haired woman enquired.

"They are," replied the alien. "Please do not be alarmed by the sight of other species. This meeting is to be open for the public as this meeting would be history in the making."

"Great, where there is the public they is bound to be the media," grumbled the white-haired man.

"Do you say something ambassador?" the alien asked.

"No nothing," replied the white haired man. "What is the name of your species?"

"My species is called Turians, sir," answered the alien. "Now if you would please follow me."

The Turian moved gestured towards a direction and he began to move.

The humans glanced at each other before following their guide.

It was not a long walk. They walked about a kilometer but found not a single trace of anyone except themselves and their guide. The passage they walked through was big enough to easily hold hundreds of people but it was eerie that there was nothing there. The passage was not to say barren. It had greenery and architectural beauty but the humans had little time to take in the sight as they had an important meeting ahead of them.

They walked up several steps and into a vastly open chamber. In the center of the chamber were a massive hole and two pedestals. At the back was a large pedestal, where three people could easily stand. In the opposite direction of the large pedestal was a smaller pedestal.

The guide walked smaller pedestal and asked for the humans to wait.

It was not even a minute wait when a voice announced out.

"Greeting human ambassadors. I am Councillor Tevos of the Asari and I welcome you to the Citadel."

The speaker revealed itself and it would have been a rather shocking sight, if the two human ambassadors had seen the same species two days ago. Unlike the human-like alien, Matriarch Benezia, this alien had purple skin and facial tattoos.

Following the human looking alien were two other aliens of different species.

To the right of alien, known as Tevos, was what basically looked like a humanoid frog with horns.

To the left of Tevos was the same alien species as their guide known as Turians.

"I am Councillor Sparatus," spoke out the Turian.

"And I am Councillor Esheel." The humanoid frog called out.

As the Councillors spoke out their names, the humans suddenly found the chamber to become filled with aliens. On different floors came a crowd composed different alien species. The human ambassadors were able to saw aliens of the same species as the Councillors and several other aliens that they had only seen in the Citadel's First Contact Package.

"My name is Rin Tohsaka," pointing towards the white-haired man, "and this is Shirou Emiya. Together my colleague and myself represent UN and by extension Humanity."

"It is always a wonderful occasion when another species is welcomed towards the galactic community," spoke out Tevos in a gracious tone.

"I understand that for the galactic community this is another happy occasion but please do not think we would think the same," replied Rin a polite yet neutral manner.

Tevos was stunned for a moment by the statement but quickly recovered.

"Can you clarify what you mean but that?"

"Two days ago, 0830 Hours, February 19, 2157, Human Standard Calendar, the Citadel representative, Matriarch Benezia, invaded the mind of one of the human ambassadors, Shirou Emiya. Our laws would classify that as 'an attempted mental assault', punishable life imprisonment or the death penalty."

Within moments of Rin's announcement, the crowd buzzed with activity. At first it was curious whispers but as time passed it became louder and louder until the crowd was shouting out for answers and throwing out their opinions.

The crowd was effectively silenced when transparent barriers with slid out of nowhere and effectively created windows. No more sound came out of the crowd. Many in the crowd began to slam the transparent windows in anger.

"Does your species have some form melding similar to the asari?" Esheel asked curiously.

"Yes, humanity has immense experience with telepaths. In fact, it is part of the branch of science known as Telepathy. There are many types of telepathic abilities. There are the touched based telepaths such as the asari and other types such as smell, hearing and thought-based." Rin answered.

"Smell, hearing and thought-based?" Tevos repeated in amazement. "Your people evolved to the extent that there are different types of melding?"

Rin was about to speak when someone began to cough. It turned out the source was the Turian Councillor.

"Can we please return to the topic at hand," said Sparatus. "How is an Asari Matriarch's attempt to eliminate the language barrier being an offensive to your people? Do your people want to waste months, years if not decades just to translating languages?"

"My species, Humans, are xenophobic. Time is no concern of ours," responded Shirou. "What highly offending is the possibility of malicious intent such as the stealing classified information from the mind of a human ambassador."

"Are you accusing us, ambassador?" Sparatus growled.

"No, I am just pointing out a possibility," replied the white haired man, coolly. "The mind is a highly sensitive aspect to humanity as it is the body and soul is united by the mind."

Anyone could feel the tension rising between Turian Councillor and the white haired ambassador. The tension was troubling because the two represented two different entity, not any government but species. If heads were butt then it could spark a war between two different species. What concerned the other inhabitants of the Citadel Council Chambers was that their species could be potentially dragged into a war because of military alliances.

"Are your species' religious as you have mentioned the word 'mind' in connection with the 'soul'," interjected Esheel as her curiosity as a scientist got the better of her.

Without Esheel conscious awareness, she broke tense atmosphere with her curiosity. The white haired ambassador looked towards the Salarian Councillor with an amused smile. Rin began to giggle how the situation was solved without conscious intervention.

"Humanity as a majority is atheist – not believing in deities. In fact for a large part, religion is frowned upon. For humanity the existence of the soul is a fact and serves as a foundation of our culture and technology," answered Shirou.

That answer greatly confused the Citadel Council. Many sapient species that lived in Citadel space had religions even in the age where technology and science ruled. Some species still had religion play a large role in their society such as the Hannar, advocating the Protheans as Enkindlers. Whilst most Asari did not believe in a religion they still adhered to the belief that every being had a spirit where it would return to nothing to create an endless cycle of the universe. For scientists to accept something as mythical as the _soul_ as fact was unheard of.

Rin's giggling became even louder as she saw the Citadel Council's reactions. The sceptical and confused look. It never stopped to amaze her that people, regardless of race, were confused or sceptical of the truth that the soul existed. She had not seen such a reaction since the universal revelation – for humanity – that the existence of the soul was a universal truth.

"I do not wish to offend you but what makes your specie to believe that the soul exists?" The Asari Councillor asked in a polite but sceptical tone like.

Amusement seemed to radiate from the white haired man's eyes and a matching amused smile complemented his eyes.

"I am sure that Matriarch Benezia told you that I had abilities unlike any of your species have encountered such as the Conceptual Weapon I used."

"Conceptual Weapon?" Sparatus repeated. "I do not understand how a shield of some sort can be a weapon?"

"A Conceptual Weapon is a magical item that causes apply a concept onto reality," Rin explained in her scholarly manner.

"A shield can be easily repurposed and used as a weapon," interjected Shirou.

The Turian Councillor was still wore a confused look even after Rin's explanation but he nodded as he understood Shirou's interjection.

"Magical item?" Tevos repeated. "Is magic what your people call biotics?" The Asari Councillor asked as she recalled Matriarch Benezia's personal report and the report of Benezia's personal guards on the encounter of the white haired human two days ago.

The human ambassador had mixed reaction. The white haired man raised a brow. The aqua eyed woman slightly tilted her head to the left. Both were easily understandably looks of confusion and begging for clarification or an explanation.

A sigh came out of the Asari Councillor's mouth. She could not believe that a meeting between such high level meeting between the Citadel Council and the human ambassador became a question and answer session on extremely basic facts. It was beneath the status the galactic legislative body to be doing such a thing when a lower ranked meeting could be doing the questioning and answering. While Tevos did not have any problem with the current situation it did ruin the prestigious reputation of the Citadel Council for doing the task of what a lower level meeting could do as this current meeting was being broadcasted live to the entire known galaxy.

Tevos was about to speak when she was cut off before she could open her mouth.

"_Trace On_," muttered the white haired man.

What happened next caused the Citadel Council and the watching crowd to gasp in shock.

Suddenly blades of all kinds began to form around Shirou. They all levitated at varying heights off the guard and were pointed downwards for the sake of not threatening the Citadel Council.

"That is not biotic. Biotics do not make either illusions or solid objects," analysed Esheel.

"I concur with Esheel on this one," agreed Sparatus.

"I don't know. This could be a form of biotics that we have yet to encounter," Tevos whispered to her colleagues. "Is that ability limited to certain individuals?"

"What creating blades out of nowhere?" Rin said. "No. Anyone can use Projection and Materialisation given enough training. Shirou here is one of the best at Projection and Materialisation."

Even before any of the Citadel Councillors could ask what the terms 'Projection' and 'Materialisation' meant, they were beaten to the punch.

"Projection is the act of turning Prana into atoms to construct the desired object, but it is temporary as the atoms eventually disperse due to atomic bonds no longer keeping it together. Materialisation is basically the same as same as Projection but a more permanent version where the object will not disappear but takes up more Prana," explained Shirou.

When Shirou looked at the Citadel Councillors to see if they understood and instead he found a dazed looks. It was the kind that showed they were still processing the information and were most likely rolling their heads to understand but to no avail. Shirou kept silent. He would let the Councillors analyse the information he had said and went for questions like a good teacher would.

Esheel was the first one to speak, "What you are talking about is impossible and violates one of the greatest principles of physics – the Law of Conservation of Energy and Mass. The human body – with the nearly same biology and body size – cannot possibly produce enough energy to create mass."

Shirou was about to speak but he was beaten by Rin.

"That was the very same thought that our science had until the integration of magic into our science," replied the raven haired woman.

The eyes of the Asari Councillor widened at that statement. Her perception on the human 'magic' being another word for biotics was shattered. Biotics did not require the need to altering entire disciplines of science. It merely obeyed the pre-existing Citadel disciplines of science. What the humans called 'magic' had to be entirely different from what Citadel space had encountered before as she had never seen or heard any biotics summon blades out of thin air.

It was only when that the blades shattered into fragments and dissolved did she become convinced magic was involved. Whether the shattered blades had been solid objects or illusions they were not what a biotic was capable of creating.

"Can you explain what magic is?" Tevos asked in wonder. "Until your proof of magic, it has been thought as something from stories and legends of the past where had yet to become mainstream and to accept that acts of the supernatural are false."

As the professor and an academic researcher, Rin was obliged to spread information for others to learn. She was about to speak when a hand appeared in front of her. It was Shirou's left hand signalling her to keep quiet.

"As much as I would like to explain what magic is, I do believe that we have wasted enough time. This meeting between the Citadel Council and us were to facilitate talks between two governments, the species under the banner of the Citadel Council, and Humanity," chimed in the white haired ambassador.

"Yes, we have wasted enough time already," agreed Sparatus. "We must go on to more important matters."

"Thank you, Councillor," Shirou agreed with Sparatus. "Does the Turian military attack innocent people because they just happen to break a law they did not know?"

Shirou gave Sparatus an angry glare.

Sparatus frowned at question and spoke out polite but angry tone, "Are you accusing my people on killing innocent people? My people are the peacekeepers of Citadel space."

"Five days ago – Human Standard Calendar – a Turian patrol group was destroyed starship full of human explorers for activating a Mass Relay for research purposes were killed. Several hours later, the Turian patrol group discovered the location to one of most remote colonies, Harvest, and were about to invade it for the sake of 'punishing the lawbreakers.'," replied Shirou.

Tevos and Esheel gave Sparatus a curious look, while Shirou and Rin gave the Turian a blank look.

"I do not what event you speak of," replied Sparatus in a bland tone.

Shirou gave Sparatus a stern look and balled his hands like an imaginary sword appeared within his hands.

"Are you denying that action of uniformed Turian soldiers and obviously military warships or is this the action of the rogue fraction?"

"I deny both cases. To my knowledge, no Turian patrol has encountered your specie."

Rin giggled and that caught the attention of the Citadel Councillors.

When the Citadel Councillors saw her reactions they thought she was insane for a second before reminding themselves that they were interacting with an alien species. The human's behaviours could be different from their own. No specie was the same in thinking, culture and philosophy.

"You and the turian government, the Turian Hierarchy, would not know neither event because not a single Turian escaped humanity. Either the turians were killed in battle or died from eating levo-amino acid food," Rin answered in callous manner.

"How could you make my people eat food is fatal!" Sparatus screeched in outrage.

"Rin there is no need to rub it in." Shirou warned his friend. "I apologize for my colleague's behaviour. The Turians we were able to capture were beginning to starve and it would be against prisoner of war convention to starve them, so my people reluctantly force-fed your people, Councillor Sparatus. We did not know that your people only ate dextro-amino acid food. My people had thought that the turian prisoners were trying to starve themselves to death for unknown reasons like culture."

The outrage that was etched into Sparatus's face shifted to shift into a sinister look. His blood began to heat up at the thought that his people had died in one of the most painful ways to die. To eat levo-amino acid food was like throwing a living being into space to die from being frozen and not being able to breathe.

Tevos and Esheel had similar looks of their own. While none of their people had been forced to die that way, no creature would want to be treated that way. To be forced against their will to eat a food that would be fatal to them and die a slow and agonizing death was something none would condemn any living being too.

"Why couldn't your people just simply waited and observed if the Turian prisoners could eat the food you provided?" Esheel asked as she knew that as scientist herself that she would have waited and observed.

"You must forgive us. Humanity had never encountered – much less thought of – any animal species to not eat levo-amino acid based foods," said Shirou in apologetic tone.

It looked like Sparatus was about to snap. His colleagues on the other hand gave understanding nods. The only space faring species that ate dextro-amino acid based food were the Quarians and the Turians themselves. In fact out of the thousands of planets explored and colonised by the Citadel species, the only animals species to eat dextro-amino acid based food originated from the Turian homeworld, Palaven.

"I demand you apologize for insulting my race and retract that baseless accusation against the Turian military illegal acts that it did not commit!" Sparatus growled out.

Rin's brows began to twitch in agitation. If there was out thing she hated and that was politics, especially politicians that denied the truth against the most concrete evidence. She had put up with the infamous Clock Tower politics for several years and that experience had been more than enough to show ruthlessness and greed that lay in the hearts of humans. Even after the Clock Tower's demise, it seemed the politics would come back to confront her right now.

Shirou was unsurprised by the Turian Councillor's response. Reputation in the world of politics was the most difficult to construct. Resources and connections could be easily rebuilt given enough time. Once a reputation was ruined it would stay ruined until forgotten in the sands of time, even then it would not be totally forgotten. The Turian Councillor would fight teeth and nail to continue to preserve the Turian's centuries old reputation as peacekeepers.

"As of now, 1534 Hours, February 21, 2157, Human Standard Calendar, I, in place of the UN Assembly and President, declare that Humanity is at war with galactic body, known as the Citadel, and all those within the galactic territories, known as Citadel space," announced the white haired ambassador.

"Surely you would not be foolish enough to declare war because false accusation?" Sparatus asked as he was bewildered by the human ambassador's reaction.

"Would you please explain why would your people declare war on the entire galactic community because of the actions of one species?" Tevos asked in shock at the response.

"Humanity has decided to declare war on the entire Citadel space for the following reasons; every Citadel race is obliged to wage war on any enemy of the Turian Hierarchy because of military alliances and the history how the Citadel races react to a potential threat and enemies. An entire race was neutered after they lost a war because they were a _potential _threat. No assistance was offered to a species that lost 99% of its people and kicked off their homeworld. This very council – your predecessors – but nevertheless this council condemned billions of innocent people to death and misery when they were in no way involved in the Krogan Rebellion and Geth Uprising," spoke Rin in a disgusted tone and resisted the urge to spit.

The Councillors were stonewalled. The observing crowd was shocked and gasped in horror at the scene. The conversation taking place was not between ordinary people where their opinions would have effect on the lives of others. A conversation, more accurately a meeting, was taking place between two galactic governments and their words influenced government policy, which would affect countless people.

Rin on the other hand, frowned in disapproval. Her friend was taking a very large bet. His spoken words were already past a politically sensitive topic and the direction he was taking this meeting could have serious political repercussions for the United Nations. Then she remembered that Shirou was not inexperienced. He was in fact a seasoned diplomat and politician. Some of the alliances and peace that he brokered during the Type War had been instrumental in uniting Humanity against the Types.

"Surely you would not declare war because of the past?" Esheel asked.

Shirou gritted his teeth in anger. He hated the casual callousness of how little life mattered to these alien leaders. What pestered him even more was how little they cared about the past. History was there so people could learn from the past and not make the same mistakes. Teeth grinded against each other as he recalled that the Citadel Council, even centuries after the Krogan Rebellion and Geth Uprising had not attempted to solve the mistakes of their predecessors.

"The point is not that few hundred lives were lost. It was that a species, which prides itself to ensure galactic peace and safety, would so casually use force. We are not talking about punishing an individual or groups of people but an entire race. How about the common courtesy to use diplomacy to inform Humanity that it broke a law that it did not know! What about the fact that the Turian military carelessly slaughtered hundreds of explorers for exploring unknown alien artifacts!" The white haired ambassador roared at the Citadel Council in outrage

Sparatus could not take it anymore. It was one thing to insult his race, but to insult everything that the Turian race stood for and how it should enforce laws was too much.

"Enough C-Sec arrest these criminals for Lèse-majesté!" Sparatus bellowed.

Citadel Security never got the chance. Even before any Citadel Security officer could move there were hundreds of blades floating at the ceiling of the Citadel Council Chambers. The blades were pointed at everyone within the chambers exist for the human ambassadors.

No one needed to be told not to do anything stupid. It would take a heartbeat for gravity bring down the blades if the force levitating the blades disappeared. There were no chances in hell that the Kinetic Barriers that the Citadel Council could handle a rain of blades.

Shirou had a cocky smile on his face and muttered, "Enact War Protocols!"

- O -

"We got the code, Captain!"

"Relay this message to the UN 5th Fleet. 'Let no man, woman or child fall while I still draw breath.'"

"Admiral Cole has replied. 'Let no xenos escape the righteous fury of humanity.'"

"It seems humanity is once more war with the alien. This time humanity is prepared and will not caught off-guard. For Earth and all Her Colonies!"

Hidden to the sensors of the Citadel Defence Fleet, UNSV prowlers activated every scanner they had. The Citadel Defence Fleet was completely surprised by the activation of high powered scanner that scanned the entire star system.

Unknown to anyone, this would be the first event that sparked a long and bloody war that would go down in history as the First Contact War or more formally the Human-Citadel War. This first battle of the war would be called the Battle of the Citadel.


	8. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

**Question to the Readers**

1. For those readers that are disappointed in the direction this story is going, can you please clarify or criticize me in a way that I can address your concerns?

2. What would seem realistic and logical to take the plot of this story?

**Answers to the General Readers' Concerns**

1. My portrayment of humanity is starkly different from any other Mass Effect Crossover as I want to write something unique and not out there in the fanfiction community. I am still experimenting around as I am relatively new story writer. PLEASE give me reviews to let me know where I lack and need to fix.

2. Humanity is portrayed as confident (not arrogant, in my opinion) because it has reason to – which is explained later in the story through technology and magic.

3. In my story, humanity feels threatened and fearful. Humanity discovers that it is outgunned and outnumbered by aliens (hundreds of times over) who have been spacefaring for centuries. And Humanity also learns that the Citadel Council is very, very dangerous. What kind of group lets two different races (the Quarians and Krogan) drive themselves to near extinction and offer not aid whatsoever? Hence, Humanity being aggressive as it embodies the good idiom, "the best defence is a good offence."


End file.
